Lanthanum-Integrated Porous Adsorbent for Effective Phosphorus Removal

In pursuit of accessing clean water, the phosphate removal is of great importance for preventing eutrophication toward sustainable ecology. However, effective adsorbents with high capacity, selectivity, and long-term stability for treating phosphate in water still remain desired, which requires further development. Herein, a type of porous La-based adsorbents, which are composed of highly dispersed La(OH)3 on amino-functionalized Caragana korshinskii (CK) nanowires, are designed and fabricated through simple amination and decoration of lemon bars. Specifically, the adsorption to phosphate can be quickly completed within 50 min, and an ultrahigh adsorption capacity of 173.3 mg of P g–1 is realized. Moreover, these composite adsorbents display excellent selectivity and anti-interference ability to phosphate in the presence of common anions (CO32–, NO3–, Cl–, and SO42–). After four regenerations, there is still a removal rate of 85%. This study underscores an integrated material model for designing advanced structures toward efficient wastewater treatment.