Cesium removal from solution using PAN-based potassium nickel hexacyanoferrate (II) composite spheres

A polyacrylonitrile-potassium nickel hexacyanoferrates composite adsorbent was prepared to remove cesium ion in aqueous solution. The dual nozzle technique was applied to prepare a composite sphere. The physicochemical behavior of the ion exchanger was specified with different techniques including Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, X-ray powder diffraction, specific surface analysis, scanning electron microscopy, and X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy analysis. The effects of contact time, solution initial pH, presence of various cations and initial cesium concentration on the adsorption was also investigated and the optimum conditions for separation of cesium were determined. In addition, adsorption kinetics and adsorption mechanism were studied by modeling the experimental data and related parameters were also evaluated, which showed that sorption data fitted to pseudo-second-order and film diffusion models. Adsorption isotherm in batch experiments showed that the sorption data were successfully fitted with Langmuir model. Finally the adsorption dynamic capacities of the synthesized composite in column experiments were evaluated at 139.925 and 119.539 mg/g for flow rate of 1 and 3 BV/min, respectively.