Plasma O2 modifies the structure of synthetic zeolite-A to improve the removal of cadmium ions from aqueous solutions

The present study addresses the removal of cadmium ions (Cd(II)) from aqueous solutions at a pH of 7.5 using zeolite-A activated by exposure to oxygen plasma. The activation process was performed over a wide range of plasma powers (10, 20, 30, and 40 W) and exposure times (30 to 360 s). Oxygen plasma cannot chemically modify zeolite to a considerable extent, but it can clean the surface, open blocked pores, and induce the formation of additional OH groups via exposure to humidity in ambient air. Therefore, Cd+2 ion removal is increased by approximately 10% with the plasma treatments. Infrared-attenuated total reflectance spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, and energy dispersive spectroscopy were applied to analyze the changes in the surface structure and properties of the samples.