Ultrasonic-assisted synthesis of polyacrylamide/bentonite hydrogel nanocomposite for the sequestration of lead and cadmium from aqueous phase: Equilibrium, kinetics and thermodynamic studies

Clay-hydrogel nanocomposites are suitable material for mitigating the pollution/environmental impact because of their high adsorption capacity. In this study, the synthesis of polyacrylamide/bentonite hydrogel nanocomposite was assisted by ultrasound through successful incorporation of nanobentonite as filler and cross-linker into polyacrylamide framework. The adsorbent was characterized by FT'IR, XRD, BET, SEM-EDX, and TEM in order to observe structural changes and sorption interactions. The effect of adsorbent dose, contact time, initial metal ion concentration and pH on the sequestration of Pb2+ and Cd2+ was analyzed. The adsorbent removed more than 95% Pb2+ and Cd2+ within first 20 min, which corresponds to relatively high pseudo-first order rate constant, k(1) (0.240 for Pb2+ and 0.253 1/min for Cd2+) and pseudo-second order rate constant, k(2) (0.031 for Pb2+ and 0.033 g/mg/min for Cd2+). The isotherm and kinetics modeling data were best described by Freundlich isotherm over the entire concentration range and pseudo-second order rate equation, respectively. The thermodynamic studies implied spontaneous and endothermic nature of adsorption process. The maximum adsorption capacity (138.33 for Pb2+ and 200.41 mg/g for Cd2+) determined using Langmuir model along with a good regeneration potential depicts that polyacrylamide/bentonite hydrogel nanocomposite could be used effectively for Pb2+ and Cd2+ uptake from aqueous solution.