Performance of synthesized hybrid hydrogel nanocomposite applied for the removal of metal ions from aqueous solutions

The removal of metal ions from mine effluents by a copolymerized gelatine (GL-cl-PAAm) and the hybrid hydrogel nanocomposite was investigated in the present study. Both adsorbents were characterized using fourier transformed infra-red spectrometer (FTIR) and their adsorption behaviour was studied through the determination of the effects of adsorbent dosage and temperature on the adsorption capacity. The thermodynamic study at 20, 30 and 40 degrees C showed that the adsorption process using GL-cl-PAAm and the hybrid hydrogel nanocomposite were both exothermic (Delta H = 351 KJ/mol > 0 and (Delta H = 17.71 KJ/mol > 0, respectively) while the values of the Gibbs free energy (Delta G < 0) for both adsorbents was negative indicating that for the initial concentrations of Cd considered, the adsorption process was of a spontaneous nature. The adsorbents were found to effectively remove uranium (U), nickel (Ni) and lead (Pb) from mine effluents achieving a maximum removal of 100%. The developed adsorbents have shown the potential to remove metals in synthetic and complex solutions.