Assessment of Pb²⁺ ions removal efficiency of nanomagnetite-loaded poly (acrylamide-co-acrylic acid) hydrogel in fixed-bed microcolumn from aqueous solution

Abstract

The adsorption potential of nanomagnetite-loaded poly (acrylamide-co-acrylic acid) hydrogel, to remove Pb(II) ions from aqueous solution as well as contaminated water, was investigated using fixed-bed adsorption column. The effect of inlet Pb(II) concentration, feed flow rate, and bed depth on the breakthrough characteristics of the adsorption system were determined. The adsorption capacity increased with the increase in initial Pb(II) concentration and flow rate, but decreased with increasing bed depth. The Thomas, Yoon–Nelson, and Adams–Bohart kinetic models were applied to the experimental data to predict the breakthrough curves and to determine the characteristic parameters of the column, useful for process design.

Keywords:

• Adsorption
• Fixed-bed column technology
• Kinetic
• Modeling
• Breakthrough curves

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to express thanks to the Department of Atomic Energy, BRNS-BARC, Mumbai, INDIA for providing financial assistance. Authors are also grateful to UGC-DAE Consortium for Scientific Research, Indore for FTIR and AFM analysis, and AIIMS, New Delhi, India for TEM analysis.