Influence of anions on the adsorption kinetics of salicylate onto alpha-alumina in aqueous medium.

The adsorption kinetics of salicylate on alpha-alumina surfaces were studied at 25 degrees C and pH 6 in the presence of 0.05 mM concentration of different anions (Cl(-), Br(-), I(-), SCN(-), HCOO(-), CH(3)COO(-), S(2)O(2-)(3), CO(2-)(3), and SO(2-)(4)) as a function of time. The experimental data were significantly better fitted to a pseudo-second-order kinetics equation of nonlinear form in the entire time duration and are in excellent agreement with corresponding estimated values. Considering adsorption data for salicylate in the presence of Cl(-) as the face value, all the monovalent anions (Br(-), I(-), SCN(-), HCOO(-), CH(3)COO(-)) promote the adsorption of salicylate onto alpha-alumina surfaces while the divalent anions (S(2)O(2-)(3), CO(2-)(3), and SO(2-)(4)) have the reverse effect under similar conditions. DRIFT spectra of alpha-alumina treated with salicylate reveal that the symmetric peak nu(s)(COO(-)) is shifted by approximately 40 cm(-1) to a lower wavelength region, which implies that salicylate forms an inner-sphere complex with alpha-alumina surface in the presence of both mono- and divalent anions.