Clean Water and Sanitation (SDG 6), Climate Action (SDG 13)
Novel metal loaded chelating resin based nanosorbents for efficient removal of metals from acid mine drainage
Caroline Lomalungelo Dlamini* William Pitcher College. Eswatini
Acid mine drainage (AMD) is the driving force of metal pollution in the environment. This paper reports on the performance of three (3) nanocomposite adsorbents, HFO-P, HZO-P and HTO-P, in the removal of metals from AMD. The nanocomposites were synthesized by loading each of hydrated Fe, Zr and Ti oxides nanoparticles onto a weakly acidic chelating resin by the precipitation method. Before application, the novel hybrid nanosorbents were characterised using several spectroscopic and solid state techniques including scanning electron microscopy (SEM-EDX), Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) and X-ray diffractometry (XRD) spectroscopic techniques. The Al(III) adsorption conditions were optimised for contact time, adsorbent dosage and initial solution pH using the batch equilibrium technique. The metal ions levels were measured using the inductively coupled plasma-optical emission spectrometer (ICP- OES). The data was modelled using kinetics and isotherm models mainly the Freundlich and Langmuir. The SEM-EDX results confirmed the presence of the metal oxides within the hybrid resin beads. HFO-P, HZO-P and HTO-P adsorbed Al(III) rapidly from synthetic water with maximum adsorption capacities of 54.04, 58.36 and 40.10 mg/g, respectively at pH 1.80 ± 0.02. The adsorption of Al(III) followed the pseudo-second-order kinetics (R 2 > 0.98 ), indicating that it occurred through chemisorption. Al(III) was efficiently desorbed from the nanosorbents using a NaCl-NaOH binary solution. The nanosorbents were finally used to remove selected metals (Al, Cr, Mn, Fe, Ni, Co, Cu, Zn, Pb, Cd) from AMD obtained from a defunct gold mine located in the western part of Johannesburg, South Africa. The novel sorbents removal efficiency of the metals from environmental AMD was in the order HTO-P > HZO-P > HFO-P.
P02
© The Author(s), 2023
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