Journal
ROYAL SOCIETY OPEN SCIENCE
Volume 9, Issue 3, Pages -Publisher
ROYAL SOC
DOI: 10.1098/rsos.211644
Keywords
geopolymer; adsorption; zeolites; wastewater; kinetics; adsorption isotherms
Categories
Funding
- Laboratorio de Ensayos Metrologicos y de Materiales (LEMAT)
- Centro Ecuatoriano de Investigacion y Desarrollo de Nanotecnologia (CIDNA)
- Escuela Superior Politecnica del Litoral, ESPOL (Guayaquil-Ecuador)
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This study tested the performance of an Ecuadorian zeolite-based geopolymer in removing copper ions from aqueous solutions. The results showed that the geopolymer has high adsorption capacity and competitiveness in this aspect.
Copper has been proven to have hazardous effects on human beings depending on its concentration levels. Recently, there has been a growing interest in developing geopolymers using local industrial minerals and by-products. However, research on the adsorption of heavy metals by geopolymer based on mordenite-rich tuffs is still limited. The geopolymer adsorbents have been synthesized using natural Ecuadorian zeolite-rich tuffs containing quartz, mordenite calcite and amorphous content with 20.8%, 28.5%, 4.2% and 46.4%, respectively. The geopolymers showed a maximum compressive strength of 26.86 MPa for 28 d of curing time. In the present study, an Ecuadorian zeolite-based geopolymer's removal capacity on copper ions in aqueous solutions, varying concentration and contact time were tested. Kinetic models were developed using pseudo first-order, pseudo second-order and the Elovich model. The adsorption data, using Cu2+ concentrations from 20 to 160 ppm, at 25 degrees C were described by the Langmuir and Freundlich isotherms. Linear coefficient of determination (R-2) results show that the Langmuir model fits the best. The attained adsorption capacity of 52.63 mg g(-1) demonstrates the low-cost geopolymer's effectiveness for this study and its competitiveness compared with other studies. Adsorption kinetics follows the pseudo second-order kinetics model at the lower initial concentration of Cu2+.
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