3. Results and discussion
3.1. Adsorption kinetics and adsorption mechanisms
In order to know how long it took to reach the adsorption equilibrium, pre trials were carried out at the initial P concentration in aqueous solutions of 17.1 mg/L, initial pH of 5.81 and temperature of 21 ± 0.5 °C. It was found that P removal was 99% after 24 h, and had ignorable increase as the adsorption time was increased to 48 h. It suggested that 24 h be long enough to obtain the adsorption equilibrium.