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Immobilization of strontium in geopolymers activated by different concentrations of sodium silicate solutions

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Abstract

Sodium silicate is always used as an activator for the synthesis of geopolymer. However, the effect of sodium silicate concentration on the geopolymer used as adsorbent was still unclear. Therefore, the immobilization of Sr2+ in geopolymers activated by different concentrations of sodium silicate was studied through kinetic and isotherm modeling and solid characterizations including XRD, FTIR, TG, SEM–EDS, and N2 adsorption–desorption isotherm. The adsorption amount of Sr2+ decreased with the sequence of S1, S2, and S3. According to the kinetic and isotherm modeling results, these sorption processes fitted better with pseudo-second-order, mainly governed by film diffusion. However, the diffusion mode was gradually closed to particle diffusion as for the sequence of S3, S2, and S1. Besides, the Langmuir model can be more befitting to sorption data than the Freundlich model, and the free energies decreased with the order of S1, S2, and S3. In addition, the specific surface areas did not change regularly with S1, S2, and S3. Thus, the distribution of Al tetrahedrons has a decisive role in the sorption process of Sr2+, even though the specific surface area is also a critical factor. More Al tetrahedrons can be formed under the activation of sodium silicate with higher concentration, leading to the low Si/Al molar ratio of the as-synthesized geopolymer.

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Funding

This research was supported to KS by the JSPS (Japan Society for the Promotion of Science) Kaken Kiban A project (No. JP19H00883) and to TQ by the China Scholarship Council (No. 201706420068) and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (No. 2021QN1079).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. National Engineering Research Center of Coal Preparation and Purification, China University of Mining and Technology, Xuzhou, 221116, China

    Quanzhi Tian, Yinhai Pan & Yingchu Bai

  2. Department of Earth Resources Engineering, Kyushu University, Fukuoka, 819-0395, Japan

    Quanzhi Tian & Keiko Sasaki

  3. School of Chemical Engineering and Technology, China University of Mining and Technology, Xuzhou, 221116, China

    Yinhai Pan & Yingchu Bai

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  1. Quanzhi Tian
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  2. Yinhai Pan
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  3. Yingchu Bai
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  4. Keiko Sasaki
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Contributions

Quanzhi Tian: conceptualization, methodology, formal analysis and investigation, writing — original draft preparation, Yinhai Pan and Yingchu Bai: investigation. Keiko Sasaki: resources, supervision.

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Correspondence to Quanzhi Tian or Keiko Sasaki.

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Tian, Q., Pan, Y., Bai, Y. et al. Immobilization of strontium in geopolymers activated by different concentrations of sodium silicate solutions. Environ Sci Pollut Res 29, 24298–24308 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-021-17553-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-021-17553-9

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