Study on activated carbon in chromium-containingwastewater treatment by XPS

The mechanism of activated carbon treatment with chromium-containing wastewater byX-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and that of adsorption and reduction reaction of the acti-vated carbon with hexavalent chromium solution are presented in this paper. The XPS results showthat at PH<1,the activated carbon does not adsorb any chromium ion,and the main reaction is re-duction process of Cr(VI), at 16,the main process is adsorption of the car-bon to Cr(VI). The optimum range of treatment is at pH 3-6,in which removal efficiency ofadsorption and reduction is relatively high. It demonstrates that the reduction mechanism is aheterogeneous acid catalysis process.