Study on fractions of adsorbed Pb and Cd onto natural surface coatings

Abstract

The speciation and extent of migration of adsorbed Pb and Cd in natural surface coatings (NSCs) were investigated using sequential extraction procedure to provide an understanding of distribution of the adsorbed Pb and Cd. Extractions were conducted on NSCs before and after Pb and Cd adsorption treatment under controlled laboratory conditions with initial Pb and Cd concentrations ranging from 0.2–2.5 mol/l. The Langmuir adsorption isotherms were applied to estimate equilibrium coefficients of Pb and Cd adsorption to NSCs components. The results showed that 58.50% of adsorbed Pb in average existed in tightly adsorbed form, and the remaining Pb was mostly present as solid oxides/hydroxides (34.00%) and exchangeable and soluble form (7.50%) in NSCs, respectively. Large amount of adsorbed Cd (70.51% in average) was present in exchangeable and soluble form, following a decreasing order in tightly adsorbed form (18.61%), solid oxides/hydroxides (9.87%), and easily oxidizable solids/compounds (1.01%), respectively. No Cd was found in strongly held oxides and precipitates. Compared to the distribution of adsorbed Pb in NSCs, Cd distribution showed that less migration of Cd from exchangeable and soluble form to solid oxides/hydroxides after adsorbed to NSCs, indicating fewer sites for Cd to adsorb to NSCs and less affinity of Cd to the NSCs. These percent distributions of metals provided an additional interpretation to that Pb adsorption to the NSCs greater than that of Cd, less retention of Cd than that of Pb and less roles attributed for Pb/Cd adsorption by organic materials in NSCs, which were observed based on the selective extraction techniques in the independent investigations.