This paper discusses the properties of metal oxide/biochar systems for use in wastewater treatment. Titanium, zinc, and iron compounds are most often combined with biochar; therefore, combinations of their oxides with biochar are the focus of this review. The first part of this paper presents the most important information about biochar, including its advantages, disadvantages, and possible modification, emphasizing the incorporation of inorganic oxides into its structure. In the next four sections, systems of biochar combined with TiO₂, ZnO, Fe₃O₄, and other metal oxides are discussed in detail. In the next to last section probable degradation mechanisms are discussed. Literature studies revealed that the dispersion of a metal oxide in a carbonaceous matrix causes the creation or enhancement of surface properties and catalytic or, in some cases, magnetic activity. Addition of metallic species into biochars increases their weight, facilitating their separation by enabling the sedimentation process and thus facilitating the recovery of the materials from the water medium after the purification process. Therefore, materials based on the combination of inorganic oxide and biochar reveal a wide range of possibilities for environmental applications in aquatic media purification.

Scientific development has increased the awareness of water pollutant forms and has reawakened the need for its effective purification. Oxyanions are created by a variety of redox-sensitive metals and metalloids. These species are harmful to living matter due to their toxicity, nondegradibility, and mobility in aquatic environments. Among a variety of water treatment techniques, adsorption is one of the simplest, cheapest, and most effective. Since metal-oxide-based adsorbents poses a variety of functional groups onto their surface, they were widely applied in ions sorption. In this paper adsorption of harmful oxyanions by metal oxide-based materials according to literature survey was studied. Characteristic of oxyanions originating from As, V, B, W and Mo, their probable adsorption mechanisms and comparison of their sorption affinity for metal-oxide-based materials such as iron oxides, aluminum oxides, titanium dioxide, manganium dioxide, and various oxide minerals and their combinations are presented in this paper.

The aim of this work was to obtain an inorganic oxide system containing silica and magnesium oxide, and characterized by specific physicochemical properties, in particular well-defined adsorption parameters. The preparation process was carried out according to a co-precipitation method using solutions of sodium silicate and selected inorganic magnesium salt. The oxide system obtained (MgO·SiO₂) was used as a support (adsorbent) of nickel(II) ions, whose precursors were model solutions of nitrates. The effectiveness of the adsorption process was evaluated using many different analytical techniques, including atomic absorption spectroscopy, energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy and equivalent point titration. Moreover the stability of adsorbent/adsorbate bonding was estimated. The oxide systems—adsorbents—used in the process were also analyzed according to their physicochemical properties, especially changes in adsorption parameters. The last part of the study involved evaluation of the kinetics of the adsorption process depending on time and the pH of the reaction system.

A study was conducted concerning the preparation and application of a novel synthetic oxide adsorbent of MgO-SiO₂ type. The material was prepared via a sol–gel route, utilizing magnesium ethoxide and tetraethoxysilane as precursors of magnesium oxide and silica respectively, and ammonia as a catalyst. The powder was comprehensively analyzed with regard to chemical composition (EDS method), crystalline structure, morphology, characteristic functional groups, electrokinetic stability and porous structure parameters (BET and BJH models). The synthesized oxide adsorbent is amorphous, with irregularly shaped particles, a relatively large surface area of 612 m²/g, and negative surface charge over almost the whole pH range. Comprehensive adsorption studies were performed to investigate the adsorption of Cd(II) and Pb(II) ions on the MgO–SiO₂ oxide adsorbent, including evaluation of adsorption kinetics and isotherms, the effect of pH, contact time and mass of adsorbent. It was shown that irrespective of the conditions of the adsorption process, the synthesized MgO–SiO₂ adsorbent exhibits slightly better affinity to lead(II) than to cadmium(II) ions (sorption capacity of 102.02 mg(Pb²⁺)/g and 94.05 mg(Cd²⁺)/g). The optimal time for removal of the analyzed metal ions was 60 min, although adsorption reached equilibrium within 10 min for Pb(II) and within 15 min for Cd(II) ions, which was found to fit well with a type 1 pseudo-second-order kinetic model. Additionally, adsorption efficiency was affected by the pH of the reaction system—better results were obtained for pH ≥7 irrespective of the type of metal ion.