A comparative study for phosphate adsorption on amorphous FeOOH and goethite (α-FeOOH): An investigation of relationship between the surface chemistry and structure

Eutrophication is generally caused by excess nitrogen and phosphorus being released into surface waters by runoff. Developing adsorbents for adsorbing phosphate within soil buffer zones and/or water treatment columns may be effective methods to mitigate this problem. In this study, an amorphous FeOOH (AF) and a well-crystallized α-FeOOH (CF) was formulated to compare phosphate adsorption behavior. The physicochemical properties between these species showed significant differences in morphology, crystallization, zeta potential, and specific surface area. The AF exhibited higher phosphate uptake than CF. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) verified that the hydroxyl groups within AF were 13.28% higher than that in CF. The triply coordinated hydroxyl groups (μ3-OH) associated with AF and CF appeared at different positions as shown in the diffuse reflectance infrared Fourier transform spectroscopy (DRIFTS) analyses, confirming that AF contains more adsorption reactive sites (μ3-OH). Mechanisms for monodentate formations and a stable six-member ring structure were proposed. The X-ray absorption near the edge structure (XANES) and XPS results suggested that the iron valence in AF was dominated by Fe (III). XANES also demonstrated that the amorphous structure found in the AF was caused by the disordered tetrahedron and octahedron alignments, leading to a higher phosphate adsorption.