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Efficient adsorption of Cd2+ from aqueous solution using metakaolin geopolymers

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Abstract

In this study, geopolymers were prepared using metakaolin (MK) raw material under different alkali activator moduli (SiO2/Na2O = 0.8, 1.2, 1.6, 2.0 M ratio) in order to analyze their capacity and mechanism for adsorbing cadmium (Cd2+) from solution. Instrumental analyses including X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) with energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy(XPS), Fourier transform infrared (FTIR), and Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET) were performed to examine the mineralogical features of the MK and geopolymers before and after Cd2+ adsorption. The effect of initial pH, temperature, contact time, and initial concentration on Cd adsorption performance was studied to obtain the equilibrium isotherm. Kinetic data of the geopolymers fitted the pseudo-second-order kinetic model well. Moreover, the adsorption equilibrium data of Cd2+ adsorbed by the geopolymers fitted the Langmuir model better than the Freundlich model. The result shows that chemisorption dominates Cd2+ adsorption by geopolymers and that the adsorption capacity differs when prepared using different alkali-activated modulus agents. The geopolymer prepared using an alkali activator modulus of 0.8 M (molar ratio) exhibited the best Cd2+ adsorption performance with a maximum adsorption capacity of 70.3 mg g−1. The removal rate of Cd2+ by geopolymer still remained above 85% after five round of recycling.

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Acknowledgments

We thank Tingyu Bai from the Spice and Beverage Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Tropical Agricultural Sciences, for the guidance on the operation of SEM-EDX.

Funding

This work was supported by the Project of the Ministry of Water Resources of China (Rapid evaluation of flight inspection of rural drinking water safety engineering projects).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Resources and Environmental Sciences, China Agricultural University, Beijing, 100193, China

    Tian Lan, Pinfang Li, Fazal Ur Rehman, Xiangling Li, Wei Yang & Shiwen Guo

  2. Key Laboratory of Arable Land Conservation (North China), Ministry of Agriculture, Beijing, 100193, China

    Tian Lan & Pinfang Li

  3. Beijing Key Laboratory of Biodiversity and Organic Farming, China Agricultural University, Beijing, 100193, China

    Shiwen Guo

  4. College of Resources and Environmental Sciences, China Agricultural University, No. 2 Yuanmingyuan West Road, Haidian District, Beijing, 100193, China

    Shiwen Guo

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  1. Tian Lan
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  2. Pinfang Li
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  3. Fazal Ur Rehman
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  4. Xiangling Li
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  5. Wei Yang
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Correspondence to Shiwen Guo.

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Lan, T., Li, P., Rehman, F.U. et al. Efficient adsorption of Cd2+ from aqueous solution using metakaolin geopolymers. Environ Sci Pollut Res 26, 33555–33567 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-019-06362-w

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