Author(s)

Mei Zou^1,2,3, Liangcheng Xie^1,2,3, Yan Liu⁴, Fujia Guan⁵, Chao Han⁴, Kangle Ding^1,2,3*

¹Key Laboratory of Exploration Technologies for Oil and Gas Resources, Ministry of Education, Yangtze University, Jingzhou, China.
²Shandong Provincial Key Laboratory of Depositional Mineralization & Sedimentary Mineral, Shandong University of Science and Technology, Qingdao, China.
³College of Chemistry and Environmental Engineering, Yangtze University, Jingzhou, China.
⁴College of Resources and Environment, Yangtze University, Wuhan Campus, Wuhan, China.
⁵College of Petroleum Engineering, Yangtze University, Wuhan Campus, Wuhan, China.

Recently, the problem of phenolic organics pollution has become increasingly serious. More and more strategies have been developed to remove phenolic organics from water, including oxidation, adsorption, chemical precipitation, etc. Among them, adsorption technology has attracted great attention due to its advantages of high efficiency, simplicity and easy operation. In this study, the natural shale soil without any modification was directly used as adsorbent to remove phenol from aqueous solutions. The shale soil samples were characterized by scanning electron microscope (SEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) and nitrogen adsorption-desorption isotherms. Detailed kinetics and isotherm studies of phenol adsorption onto shale were investigated. According to the results of the orthogonal test, the influence degree of the four factors on the removal of phenol by soil samples was operating temperature > adsorbent dosage > contact time > pH. The adsorption kinetics of phenols by the soil corresponded with the pseudo-second-order kinetic model. Thermodynamic studies indicated that Freundlich adsorption isotherm model could better describe phenol removal characteristics than Langmuir adsorption isotherm model. And the maximum adsorption capacity was found to be 9.68 mg/g for phenol. It is concluded that shale soil without any modification or activated methods could be employed as a low-cost alternative adsorbent for wastewater treatment.

Shale, Soil, Phenol, Adsorption, Kinetics, Isotherm Model

Zou, M. , Xie, L. , Liu, Y. , Guan, F. , Han, C. and Ding, K. (2020) Soils Developed from Dolomitic Shale in the Yichang Area, China and Adsorption Characteristics for Phenol. Open Journal of Yangtze Oil and Gas, 5, 145-164. doi: 10.4236/ojogas.2020.54012.