Adsorption of Pb (II) ions on variable charge oxidic calcined substrates with chemically modified surface

Background: The paper describes lead ion adsorption on variable charge oxidic calcined substrates with chemically modified surfaces. Amphoteric oxides of iron, aluminum, titanium, and manganese, change their surface electric charge after acid or alkaline treatment, letting cationic or anionic adsorption reactions from aqueous solutions. This property allows using them as adsorbing substrate for heavy metals retention in water treatment systems.

Methods: Substrate was prepared by extruding cylindrical strips from a saturate paste of the oxidic lithological material-OLM; dries it up and thermally treated by calcination. The study was performed by triplicated trial, on batch mode, using 2 grams samples of treated with NaOH 0.1N and non-treated substrate. Lead analysis was performed by AAS-GF. Freundlich and Langmuir models were used to fit results. Comparing differential behavior between treated and non-treated substrates showed the variable charge nature of the OLM.

Results: Results show L-type isotherms for the adsorption of Pb(II) ions on the activated substrate, suggesting good affinity between Pb(II) ions and OLM's surface. Average value of adsorption capacity ( K) for activated substrate (1791.73±13.06), is around four times greater than the non-activated substrate (491.54±31.97), during the adsorption reaction, 0.35 and 0.26 mmolH ⁺ of proton are produced on the activated and non-activated substrate respectively using a 1 mM Pb(II) solution and 72.2 and 15.6 mmolH ⁺ using a 10 mM Pb(II) solution. This acidification agrees with the theoretic model of transitional metals chemisorption on amphoteric oxides, present in lithological material used for the preparation of adsorbent substrates, confirming the information given by the L-type isotherms.

Conclusions: Results suggest that these variable charge oxidic adsorbent substrate show great potential as an alternative technique for water treatment at small and medium scale using granular filtration system. The easiness and low price make them suitable to apply in rural media where no treating water systems is available.