Aqueous heavy metals removal by adsorption on amine-functionalized mesoporous silica

José Aguado, Jesús M. Arsuaga, Amaya Arencibia, Montaña Lindo, Victoria Gascón

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

Amino functional mesoporous silica SBA-15 materials have been prepared to develop efficient adsorbents of heavy metals in wastewater. Functionalization with amino groups has been carried out by using two independent methods, grafting and co-condensation. Three organic moieties have been selected to incorporate the active amino sites: aminopropyl (H2N-(CH2)3-), [2-aminoethylamino]-propyl (H2N-(CH2)2-NH-(CH2)3-) and [(2-aminoethylamino)-ethylamino]-propyl (H2N-(CH2)2-NH-(CH2)2-NH-(CH2)3-). Materials have been characterized by XRD, nitrogen sorption measurements and chemical analysis. We have found that all materials preserve the mesoscopic order and exhibit suitable textural properties and nitrogen contents to act as potential adsorbents. Metal removal from aqueous solution has been examined for Cu(II), Ni(II), Pb(II), Cd(II), and Zn(II); adsorption performances of materials prepared by the two functionalization methods have been compared. In addition, copper adsorption process has been thoroughly studied from both kinetic and equilibrium points of view for some selected materials. Aqueous Cu(II) adsorption rates show that the overall process is fast and the time evolution can be successfully reproduced with a pseudo-second-order kinetic model. Whole copper adsorption isotherms have been obtained at 25 °C. Significant maximum adsorption capacities have been found with excellent behavior at low concentration.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)213-221
Number of pages9
JournalJournal of Hazardous Materials
Volume163
Issue number1
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 15 Apr 2009
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • Adsorption
  • Amine-functionalized SBA-15
  • Heavy metal removal
  • Mesoporous silica
  • Wastewater treatment

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Aqueous heavy metals removal by adsorption on amine-functionalized mesoporous silica'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this