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Hydrothermal synthesis of hydroxy sodalite from fly ash for the removal of lead ions from water

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Abstract

Zeolites are known to possess valuable physiochemical properties such as adsorption, cation exchange, molecular sieving, and catalysis. In addition, zeolites are highly selective scavengers of a variety of heavy metals from liquid effluents through the process of ion exchange. The present study was performed to hydrothermally synthesize Na8[AlSiO4]6(OH)2·2H2O (also known as hydroxy sodalite hydrate). Due to its small aperture size, this material can be an ideal candidate for the separation of small molecules and ions from aquatic and gas mixtures. Synthetic zeolites offer many advantages over natural zeolites, such as higher ion affinity and adsorption capacity. Batch adsorption isotherm studies were conducted to evaluate the obtained adsorbent for the lead ion removal from aqueous media. Modeling lead ion adsorption using Langmuir and Freundlich isotherm expressions determined the capacity of the adsorbent. A removal efficiency of 98.1 % in a 3.0 g/l adsorbent/solution mixture with a maximum adsorption capacity of 153.8 mg/g was obtained. One potential application of the synthesized zeolite is for the lead removal in point-of-use treatment devices.

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Acknowledgments

This research work was supported by the University of Wisconsin in Milwaukee. The authors would like to thank the staff at the Advanced Analysis Facility for their help in the characterization work.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, 3200 North Cramer Street, Milwaukee, WI, 53211, USA

    S. Golbad, P. Khoshnoud & N. Abu-Zahra

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  1. S. Golbad
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  2. P. Khoshnoud
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  3. N. Abu-Zahra
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Correspondence to N. Abu-Zahra.

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The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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Editorial responsibility: M. Abbaspour.

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Figure 4

a) Effect of adsorbent dose on lead removal efficiency, b) Lead ion removal efficiency (solid/liquid: 3.0 g/l) versus time (XLSX 20 kb)

Figure 5

Effect of initial concentration of lead solution on removal efficiency of CFA and ZCFA (XLSX 13 kb)

Figure 6

a) Langmuir adsorption isotherm, b) Freundlich adsorption isotherm (XLSX 18 kb)

Figure 7

Effect of contact time on the adsorption capacity of ZCFA for Pb2+ (amount of adsorbent: 1.0 g/l, initial Pb2+ concentration (XLSX 14 kb)

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Golbad, S., Khoshnoud, P. & Abu-Zahra, N. Hydrothermal synthesis of hydroxy sodalite from fly ash for the removal of lead ions from water. Int. J. Environ. Sci. Technol. 14, 135–142 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13762-016-1133-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13762-016-1133-x

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