Abstract
New nanocomposite sorbents were synthesized and used for Cr(VI) removal from aqueous solution by modifying Turkish perlite withα-MnO2(PAM) andγ-Fe2O3(PGI) nanoparticles. Nanocomposite sorbents were characterized using scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and FTIR. The effects of several parameters such as contact time, amount of sorbent, pH, and concentration were investigated and it was found that the sorption capacity for Cr(VI) was found to be highly pH dependent. Also the experimental data were evaluated in terms of different isotherm models. The data of PGI were well fit to DR isotherm model whereas PAM data were well described with Temkin isotherm model. The sorption capacities were found to be 8.64 and 7.6 mg g−1for PGI and PAM, respectively. This confirms that these nanocomposites retain the constituent nanoparticle properties while being macroscopic particles suitable for chromium removal in water treatment.
Highlights
Due to rapid technological developments and industrialization especially in developing countries, people both experience a contribution for their comfortable lives and are exposed to important environmental problems [1,2,3,4]
The characterization related to physical structure of raw perlite and the sorbents obtained from perlite after modification with nanoparticles was carried out both by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and FTIR
Batch experiments were carried out in order to investigate the removal efficiency of Turkish perlite which is a natural rock coated with commercial nanoparticles such as α-MnO2 and γ-Fe2O3 to remove Cr(VI) from aqueous solutions
Summary
Due to rapid technological developments and industrialization especially in developing countries, people both experience a contribution for their comfortable lives and are exposed to important environmental problems [1,2,3,4]. Presence of heavy metals in the environment, which are known to have atomic weights higher than 63.5 and specific gravity higher than 5.0, is very important for human beings and living things in terms of their toxicity and carcinogenicity. It becomes a health problem when high concentrations of heavy metals directly or indirectly come in contact with agricultural areas, underground water sources, humans, and animals. All over the world, discharged wastewater of industrial activities includes heavy metals such as copper, nickel, arsenic, chromium, lead, and mercury [5,6,7,8,9,10]. The maximum allowable drinking water standard is stated as 0.1 milligrams per liter (mg/L) by EPA [12, 16, 17]
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