【正文】
sary to develop new adsorbents that are low cost, environmentally friendly, and effective for phosphate removal. Studies [28] have revealed that iron (hydr)oxides are effective for phosphate adsorption and play a major role in phosphate immobilization in water bodies and oxides are also important scavengers of different anions such as phosphate in the freshwater and marine environment [29]. These two materials are both low cost and environmentally friendly. It can be anticipated that a Fe–Mn binary oxide originating from the bination of iron oxide and manganese dioxide will have the potential for phosphate , up to now, no information is available on phosphate removal by Fe–Mn binary oxides. In our laboratory, a series of Fe–Mn binary oxides with different Fe/Mn molar ratios (from 9:1to 1:1) were recently synthesized and were tested for phosphate removal. Preliminary results have shown that the Fe–Mn binary oxide with a Fe/Mn molar ratio of 6:1 was more effective for phosphate removal than other Fe–Mn binary oxides and pure amorphous FeOOH (details are presented in Supporting Material).Therefore, a Fe–Mn binary oxide with a Fe/Mn molar ratio of 6:1was selected as potential adsorbent. This adsorbent was characterized with different techniques and the kinetics and isotherm of phosphate adsorption were studied. The influences of different experimental parameters such as solution pH, ionic strength, and coexisting anions on phosphate removal as well as phosphate desorption were also investigated. Moreover, a phosphate adsorption mechanism is elucidated in the present paper.