Kinetics of heavy metal ions removal from aqueous solutions using synthesised composite hybrid cation exchanger

Abstract

ABSTRACT Hybrid organic–inorganic materials make it possible to combine beneficial organic and inorganic properties into a single molecular-scale composite. In this study, the removal efficiency of synthesized organic–inorganic hybrid cation exchanger: nylon-6,6, Zr (IV) phosphate with respect to Cu2+, Zn2+ and Cd2+ has been investigated in order to take into account its potential use to clean up wastewaters from heavy metals. Metal concentrations in solution of 0.02 and 0.2 mol/L were used in the batch technique. For both lower and higher initial concentration, the process was fitting to both first and pseudo-first-order-kinetic model, while it is also consistent with the intra-particle diffusion model. Particle diffusion is the rate-limiting step in the multistep process that is primarily controlled by external mass transfer. Moderate activation energy values confirmed that the process is a combination of both physisorption and chemisorption. The order of removal may be presented as Cu2+ > Zn2+ > Cd2+.