Mechanisms of removal of heavy metal ions by ZnO particles

Anh Thi Le; Swee-Yong Pung; Srimala Sreekantan; Atsunori Matsuda; Dai Phu Huynh

doi:10.1016/j.heliyon.2019.e01440

Mechanisms of removal of heavy metal ions by ZnO particles

Heliyon. 2019 Apr 6;5(4):e01440. doi: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2019.e01440. eCollection 2019 Apr.

Authors

Anh Thi Le¹, Swee-Yong Pung¹, Srimala Sreekantan¹, Atsunori Matsuda², Dai Phu Huynh³

Affiliations

¹ School of Materials and Mineral Resources Engineering, Universiti Sains Malaysia Engineering Campus, Nibong Tebal, Pulau Pinang, Malaysia.
² Department of Electrical and Electronic Information Engineering, Toyohashi University of Technology, Toyohashi, Aichi, Japan.
³ Faculty of Materials Technology, National Key Lab. of Polymer and Composite Materials, Ho Chi Minh University of Technology, Vietnam National University, Ho Chi Minh City, Viet Nam.

Abstract

Effluent discharges from industry and domestic waste containing unknown inorganic pollutants. In this work, different mechanisms of heavy metal ions removal using ZnO particles were studied. ZnO particles were synthesized using solid precipitation technique. The morphology of ZnO particles was rod-like shape. The average length and diameter of ZnO particle were 497.34 ± 15.55 and 75.78 ± 10.39nm, respectively. These particles removed effectively heavy metal ions such as Cu(II), Ag(I) and Pb(II) ions with efficiency >85% under exposure of 1 hour of UV light. However, poor removal efficiency, i.e. <15% was observed for Cr(VI), Mn(II), Cd(II) and Ni(II) ions. The removal of these heavy metal ions was in the forms of metals or metal oxide via reduction/oxidation or adsorption mechanism.

Keywords: Materials science; Nanotechnology.