COMPETITIVE ADSORPTION STUDY OF COPPER AND ZINC IN AQUEOUS SOLUTION USING Q/PVA/EGDE

 

N. Flores-Alamo, M. J. Solache-Ríos, R. M. Gómez-Espinosa, B. García-Gaitán

 

 

In this study, a new material of chitosan and poli(vinyl alcohol) crosslinked with ethylene glycol diglicidyl ether, was used to remove copper and zinc from aqueous solution. FT-IR/ATR spectroscopy analyses for adsorbent showed that the presence of reactive amine and hydroxyl groups may be responsible of heavy metal removal. Pseudo-second and pseudo-first order rate equations could explain respectively the Cu (II) and Zn (II) kinetic data in single and binary metal solutions. The adsorbent was used in batch experiments to evaluate the adsorption capacity of Cu (II) and Zn (II) ions in single and binary metal solutions. In single and binary solutions the maximum adsorption capacities for Cu (II) ions, obtained experimentally, were 297 and 1345 mg/g, respectively. While Zn (II) maximum adsorption were 508 and 574 mg/g, respectively. Adsorption isotherms for binary solutions showed that the presence of Zn (II) increased Cu (II) adsorption, that is, the adsorbent was selective towards Cu (II) rather than Zn (II). The adsorption energy shown that the predominant mechanism on Zn (II) adsorption was physisorption and for Cu (II) its approaches to chemisorption. The material has good ability for Cu (II) and Zn (II) removal from single and binary solution.