Selective Removal of Al(III) from Rare Earth Solutions Using Peas-based Activated Carbon

Efficiently removing Al(III) from rare earth is very significant because even trace amount of Al(III) can cause serious harm to the rare earth materials. In this paper, a nitrogen-containing activated carbon, AC-P700, was synthesized using peas as raw materials. The AC-P700 was characterized by surface area analyzer, FT-IR, and XPS methods. The adsorption and recognition properties of AC-P700 towards Al(III) were investigated, and the recognition mechanism was also analyzed. The BET special surface area of AC-P700 was $1277.1m^2{\cdot}g^{-1}$, and the average pore diameter was 1.90 nm. The AC-P700 possesses strong adsorption affinity and excellent recognition selectivity towards Al(III). The adsorption capacity for Al(III) could reach to $0.53mmol{\cdot}g^{-1}$, and relative selectivity coefficients relative to La(III) and Ce(III) is 9.6 and 8.7, respectively. Besides, AC-P700 possesses better regeneration ability and reusability.