A study of phosphate absorption by magnesium iron hydroxycarbonate.

A study of the mechanism of phosphate adsorption by magnesium iron hydroxycarbonate, [Mg(2.25)Fe(0.75)(OH)(6)](CO(3))(0.37).0.65H(2)O over a range of pH has been carried out. The efficiency of the phosphate removal from aqueous solution has been investigated between pH 3-9 and the resulting solid phases have been studied by elemental analysis, XRD, FT-IR, Raman, HRTEM, EDX and solid-state MAS (31)P NMR. The analytical and spectroscopic data suggest that phosphate removal from solution occurs not by anion intercalation of the relevant phosphorous oxyanion (H(2)PO(4)(-) or HPO(4)(2-)) into the LDH but by the precipitation of either an insoluble iron hydrogen phosphate hydrate and/or a magnesium phosphate hydrate.