Efficient removal of Hg (II) ions from waste water by a new nano-composite poly-o-toluidine tin-zirconium (IV) molybdophosphate

ABSTRACT

A new nano-composite cation exchanger poly-o-toluidine tin-zirconium (IV) molybdophosphate (PTD-SnZrMoP) was synthesised by incorporating conducting polymer poly-o-toluidine into a novel four-component inorganic cation exchanger tin-zirconium (IV) molybdophosphate with two cations and two anions. The nano-composite was characterised by FTIR, FESEM, TEM, XRD and TGA/DTA techniques. The ion exchange capacity of the nano-composite ion exchanger (2.40 meq/g) was observed to be higher as compared to that of its inorganic counterpart (1.95meq/g). The nanocomposite was found to be thermally stable, and retained 60.4% of its ion exchange capacity up to a temperature of 400°C. Elution behaviour, thermal stability, chemical stability, distribution studies and quantitative separations of metal ions from synthetic binary mixtures as well as real life effluent samples from a thermal power plant on poly-o-toluidine tin-zirconium (IV) molybdophosphate nano-composite exchanger were also investigated. The nano-composite was employed for the quantitative separation of Hg (II) ions from thermal power plant effluents.

KEYWORDS:

• Organic-inorganic nano-composite
• poly-o-toluidine-tin zirconium(IV) molybdophosphate
• binary separations
• distribution studies

Acknowledgments

The authors gratefully acknowledge Sri Guru Granth Sahib World University, Fatehgarh Sahib, Punjab (India) and Guru Nanak Dev Polytechnic College, Ludhiana (India) for providing the necessary facilities.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.