Preparation, characterization, and lead removal appraisal of zinc aluminate prepared at different calcination temperatures

Abstract

We propose a procedure to remove lead (Pb) via catalytic chelation using peracetic acid (PAA) catalyzed using zinc aluminate (ZnAl2O4) prepared at different calcination temperatures of 900, 1,000, and 1,100 °C. In addition, their characterization in terms of the thermogravimetry analysis-differential thermal analysis (TGA-DTA), X-ray diffraction (XRD), field-emission scanning electron microscopy-energy dispersive X-ray analysis (FESEM-EDX), Brunauer–Emmett–Teller (BET) analysis, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS), and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) was achieved. Moreover, response surface methodology (RSM) was employed for modeling. This study confirms that the properties of ZnAl2O4 are highly influenced by the calcination temperature. In addition, up to 95.3% of Pb can be removed using the proposed approach by employing optimum parameters such as temperature, pH, treatment time, PAA concentration, catalyst loading, and dissolved oxygen.