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Abstract
In this work, calcium alginate hydrogels with natural and pillared bentonites (0.5 and 5% w/w) were synthetized in two geometries (disks and beads) and their capacity to adsorb cadmium ion from aqueous media was evaluated. Pillarization effect on bentonite morphology was evidenced by SEM, XRD, LD and BET isotherms. Structure and swelling capacity of hydrogels were determined, showing that hydrogels beads with pillared clays presented the higher ability to retain water. Regarding cadmium adsorption capacity, the effect of pH media (3, 5 and 7), the contact time (0 to 320 min.) and the initial cadmium ion concentration (6 to 42 mg/L) were studied employing hydrogel beads. Regardless bentonite type and concentration, the optimal pH cadmium adsorption was 7, reaching the highest adsorption capacity (93%) for hydrogel with 0.5% natural bentonite. Besides, the equilibrium adsorption time was reached at 120 min for all studied hydrogels and experimental data fitted with a pseudo-second order kinetic model.
Acknowledgements
Authors wish to thank to the Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas (CONICET, Argentina), the Universidad Nacional del Sur (UNS, Argentina), the Fondo para la Investigación Científica y Tecnológica (FONCyT, Argentina, Grant PICT-2016-0181) and the Universidad Nacional de Cuyo (UNCUYO, Argentina, Grant SIIP2019: 06/L030B) for the financial support given to perform this research.
Availability of data and materials
The datasets used and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.
Competing interests
The authors declare that they have no competing interests" in this section.