Preparation of activated carbon based on hair and its selectively removing ability for Fe(III) from La(III)

It is of great significance to effectively remove impurity such as Fe from rare earth elements because the trace of Fe(III) have serious damage to the performance of rare earth materials. In this study, a hair-based activated carbon (ACH*) was synthesized and characterized by surface area analyzer, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and elemental analysis. The identification and removal of the performance of ACH600 for Fe(III) in the La(III) solution was studied. The adsorption capacity of ACH600 for Fe(III) was 15.54 mg/g and the removal rate reached up to 98.6% by virtue of abundant nitrogen-containing functional group. The selectivity coefficient of ACH600 for Fe(III) was 8.3 relative to La(III). In addition, the ACH600 also has good regeneration and reusability.