Adsorption of orthophosphate anions in aqueous solutionby cationized milled solid wood residues was characterizedas a function of sorbate-to-sorbent ratio (
0.001-2.58mmol of P/g substrate), pH (3-9), ionic strength,
I (no
Icontrol; 0.001 and 0.01 M NaCl), reaction time (4 min to 24h), and in the presence of other competing anions (0.08-50 mM SO
42-; 0.08-250 mM NO
3-). Sorption isothermsrevealed the presence of two kinds of adsorption sitescorresponding to high and low binding affinities fororthophosphate anions. Consequently, a two-site Langmuirequation was needed to adequately describe the
dataover a range of solution conditions. In addition to highersorption capacity, cationized bark possessed a higher bindingenergy for orthophosphate anions compared to cationizedwood. The sorption capacity and binding energy forbark were 0.47 mmol of P g
-1 and 295.7 L mmol
-1, respectively,and for wood, the corresponding values were 0.27 mmolg
-1 and 61.4 L mmol
-1. Both the sorption capacity and bindingenergy decreased with increasing
I, due to competitionfrom Cl
- ions for the available anion-exchange sites. Thesurface charge characteristics of cationized bark (pH
zpc= 7.9) acted in concert with orthophosphate speciation tocreate a pH-dependent sorption behavior. Orthophosphateuptake was quite rapid and attained equilibrium levels after3 h. Both SO
42- and NO
3- influenced percent removalbut required high relative competing anion to H
2PO
4- molarratios, i.e., 2.5-3 for SO
42- and 25 for NO
3-, to causeappreciable reduction. These results support our hypothesisthat adsorption of orthophosphate anions on cationizedbark involves ion exchange and other specific Lewis acid-base interactions.