commercially available activated carbons have two major shortcomings
that considerably constrain their practical usefulness
on a large scale. The first is that the commercially available
activated carbons are too expensive for practical use. Bailey et
al. [12] have presented an interesting review, which focuses on
the potential of a wide variety of low cost sorbents for heavy
metals. According to these authors, a low cost sorbent can be
assumed if it requires less prior processing, is abundant in nature,
or is either a by-product or waste material from another industry.
These materials could be alternatives for expensive treatment
processes. The second is that the activated carbons have only
single one adsorption function. They could not be used as the
chemical reaction catalyst for organic compounds.
Recently, there is growing interest in low-cost, highsurface-area
materials, especially metal oxides and their unique
applications, including not only adsorption but also chemical
catalysis. Iron oxide has a relatively high surface area and
charge; many researchers have applied iron oxide as adsorbent
to treat heavy metals and organic compounds from wastewater
[13–17]. This study explores an activated alumina-supported
iron oxide-composite material (FeAA), which is a by-product of
the FBR-Fenton reaction [18,19], for use in the treatment of the
bioeffluent of tannery wastewater from a dyeing/finishing plant
in Taiwan. The FeAA has successfully been as heterogeneous
photoassisted Fenton catalyst for degradation azo dye at neutral
pH 7.0 in our previous study [20]. The properties of the FeAA
are summarized in Table 1.
In this work, the tests and uses of FeAA as adsorbent for
the removal of Pb2+ from water are carried out. Furthermore,
we will investigate the thermodynamic and kinetic of the Pb2+
absorption onto FeAA, in order to obtain the thermodynamic
parameters, to establish the adsorption rate equation and to
assess the FeAA as adsorbent to treatment of heavy metals from
wastewate