Kinetics of heavy metal ions removal from aqueous solutions using synthesised composite hybrid cation exchanger

Hybrid organic-inorganic materials make it possible to combine beneficial organic and inorganic properties into a single molecular-scale composite. In this study, the removal efficiency of synthesized organic-inorganic hybrid cation exchanger: nylon-6,6, Zr (IV) phosphate with respect to Cu2+, Zn2+ and Cd2+ has been investigated in order to take into account its potential use to clean up wastewaters from heavy metals. Metal concentrations in solution of 0.02 and 0.2 mol/L were used in the batch technique. For both lower and higher initial concentration, the process was fitting to both first and pseudo-first-order-kinetic model, while it is also consistent with the intra-particle diffusion model. Particle diffusion is the rate-limiting step in the multistep process that is primarily controlled by external mass transfer. Moderate activation energy values confirmed that the process is a combination of both physisorption and chemisorption. The order of removal may be presented as Cu2+ > Zn2+ > Cd2+.