Immobilized nickel hexacyanoferrate on activated carbons for efficient attenuation of radio toxic Cs(I) from aqueous solutions

The aim of this study is to immobilize nickel hexacyanoferrate onto the large surface of activated carbons ( ACs) precursor to rice hulls and areca nut waste materials. These nickel hexacyanoferrate immobilized materials are then assessed in the effective attenuation of radio logically important cesium ions from aqueous solutions. The solid samples are characterized by the XRD analytical method and surface morphology is obtained from the SEM images. The batch reactor experiments show that an increase in sorptive pH (2.0-10.0) apparently not affecting the high percent uptake of Cs(I). Equilibrium modeling studies suggest that the data are reasonably and relatively fitted well to the Langmuir adsorption isotherm. Kinetic studies show that sorption process is fairly rapid and the kinetic data are fitted well to the pseudo-second order rate model. Increasing the background electrolyte concentration from 0.001 to 0.1 mol/L NaCl causes insignificant decrease in Cs(I) removal which infers the higher selectivity of these materials for Cs(I) from aqueous solutions. Further, the column reactor operations enable to obtain the breakthrough data which are then fitted to the Thomas non-linear equation as to obtain the loading capacity of column for Cs(I). The results show that the modified materials show potential applicability in the attenuation of radio toxic cesium from aqueous solution. (C) 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.