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Equilibrium adsorption study of the adsorptive removal of Cd2+ and Cr6+ using activated carbon

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Abstract

The performance of activated carbon (AC) with respect to characterization, adsorption kinetics, thermodynamics, and isotherms was addressed in this study. The effects of initial concentration, pH, contact time, ion strength, and temperature on removal efficiency were also studied. The adsorption isotherms of Cd2+ and Cr6+ on activated carbon can fit the Langmuir model well, and correlation coefficients were above 0.99, all higher than the Freundlich and Temkin models. The maximum adsorption quantities of Cd2+ and Cr6+ were 19.380 and 19.305 mg g−1 at 25 °C, respectively. The adsorption capacities of Cd2+ and Cr6+ are clearly pH dependent. The kinetics of the removal of Cd2+ and Cr6+ was in agreement with a pseudo-second-order model, and the adsorption efficiency of Cd2+ is higher than that of Cr6+. The thermodynamic results showed that increased temperature is favorable to adsorption. The speciation on activated carbon was mainly residual Cd2+ and Cr6+, and the potential ecological risk of Cd2+ is higher than that of Cr6+. The adsorptions of Cd2+ and Cr6+ on activated carbon were dominated by chelation and ion exchange, respectively.

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Funding

This work was financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (41672340), the Natural Science Foundation of Shandong Province (ZR2016DM09 and ZR2015DM012), and Graduate Research Innovation Foundation (SCX201737).

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  1. Both Weiliang Wang and Ying Liu have contributed equally towards the manuscript.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Geography and Environment, Shandong Normal University, Jinan, 250358, People’s Republic of China

    Weiliang Wang, Ying Liu, Yaru Zhang & Zongming Ren

  2. Institute of Environment and Ecology, Shandong Normal University, Jinan, 250358, People’s Republic of China

    Weiliang Wang, Ying Liu & Zongming Ren

  3. School of Environment, Tsinghua University, Beijing, 100084, People’s Republic of China

    Xiaohui Liu

  4. Jinan Environmental Monitoring Center, Jinan, 250014, People’s Republic of China

    Baojun Deng

  5. Chinese Research Academy of Environmental Sciences, Beijing, 100012, People’s Republic of China

    Shaoyong Lu & Bin Bi

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  1. Weiliang Wang
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Correspondence to Weiliang Wang or Zongming Ren.

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Responsible editor: Tito Roberto Cadaval Jr

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Wang, W., Liu, Y., Liu, X. et al. Equilibrium adsorption study of the adsorptive removal of Cd2+ and Cr6+ using activated carbon. Environ Sci Pollut Res 25, 25538–25550 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-018-2635-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-018-2635-5

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