Use of immobilized bentonite in removal of heavy metals from wastewater

Bentonite is known to adsorb toxic metal ions from aqueous solutions. In this study bentonite was immobilized in a polymer matrix of polysulfone in the form of spherical beads to remove cadmium and copper ions. For this purpose a bead-producing unit was fabricated. The procedure for making beads is described. The beads exhibited a porous surface and surface area of up to 20 m(2)/g. 99.4% of beads were retained on a sieve size of 1.18 mm and were finer than 2.36 mm. Batch adsorption data was adequately described by the Freundlich isotherm model. The beads were able to remove more than 99% of copper and cadmium ions in the column mode. These beads can find application as filter media in the removal of toxic heavy metal ions from aqueous solutions.