Adsorption studies of chromium (VI) removal from water by lanthanum diethanolamine hybrid material

Abstract

In the present research work, lanthanum diethanolamine hybrid material is synthesized by co-precipitation method and used for the removal of Cr(VI) from synthetic dichromate solution and hand pump water sample. The sorption experiments were carried out in batch mode to optimize various influencing parameters such as adsorbent dose, contact time, pH, competitive anions and temperature. The characterization of the material and mechanism of Cr(VI) adsorption on the material was studied by using scanning electron microscope, Fourier transform infrared, X-ray diffraction, Brunauer–Emmett–Teller and thermogravimetric analysis–differential thermal analysis. Adsorption kinetics studies reveal that the adsorption process followed first-order kinetics and intraparticle diffusion model with correlation coefficients (R2) of 0.96 and 0.97, respectively. The adsorption data were best fitted to linearly transformed Langmuir isotherm with correlation coefficient (R2) of 0.997. The maximum removal of Cr(VI) is found to be 99.31% at optimal condition: pH=5.6 of the solution, adsorbent dose of 8 g L−1 with initial concentration of 10 mg L−1 of Cr(VI) solution and an equilibrium time of 50 min. The maximum adsorption capacity of the material is 357.1 mg g−1. Thermodynamic parameters were evaluated to study the effect of temperature on the removal process. The study shows that the adsorption process is feasible and endothermic in nature. The value of E (260.6 kJ mol−1) indicates the chemisorption nature of the adsorption process. The material is difficult to be regenerated. The above studies indicate that the hybrid material is capable of removing Cr(VI) from water.