Kinetic and thermodynamic investigations of Pb(II) and Cd(II) adsorption on nanoscale organo-functionalized SiO₂-Al₂O₃.

This paper reports the preparation of three new Schiff base ligands modified SiO2-Al2O3 mixed oxide adsorbents, and their use for removal of Pb(II) and Cd(II) from aqueous solutions. Equilibrium and kinetic models for Pb(II) and Cd(II) sorption were applied by considering the effect of the contact time, initial Pb(II) and Cd(II) concentrations, effect of temperature, and initial pH. The contact time to attain equilibrium for maximum adsorption was 120 min. These heterogeneous Schiff base ligands were found to be effective adsorbents for the removal of heavy metal ions from solution, with Si/Al-pr-NH-et-N=pyridine-2-carbaldehyde having a high adsorption capacity for Pb(II) and Cd(II) ions from aqueous solution. The adsorption of heavy metal ions has been studied in terms of pseudo-first- and -second-order kinetics, and the Freundlich, Langmuir and Langmuir-Freundlich isotherms models have also been used to the equilibrium adsorption data. The adsorption kinetics followed the mechanism of the pseudo-second-order equation for all systems studied, confirming chemical sorption as the rate-limiting step of adsorption mechanisms and not involving mass transfer in solution, which were confirmed by techniques of DS UV-vis and FT-IR. The thermodynamic parameters (ΔG, ΔH and ΔS) indicated that the adsorption of Pb(II) and Cd(II) ions were feasible, spontaneous and endothermic between 25 and 80°C.