Cations Adsorption from Water Solutions and Automotive Wastewater by ALG/PVOH Crosslinked Hydrogel

Water heavy metals pollution is a serious problem; they are toxic for environment and living organisms. Absorbent was prepared by using sodium alginate and poly(ethanol) (PVOH) of different ratios (75/25, 50/50, 35/65 and 25/75), and a crosslinking solution of CaCl2 and Bis(b-hydroxyethyl) sulfone (BHES); the most efficient material the adsorption of Pb2+, Cu2+ and Cd2+ from a multicomponent solution at 10 mg/L of each ion was characterized by FTIR, SEM, and swelling, resistance to acid and base solutions, and the zero point charge were determined. Batch adsorptions were performed at pH of 5.5, kinetics test were performed at 25°C with a multicomponent solution and car industry wastewater, equilibrium adsorption for Pb2+ was reached in 1 hour and 4 hours for Cu2+ and Cd2+ respectively. Kinetic adsorption data were best fitted to pseudo first-order model. Isotherms were determined at 25, 40 and 50 °C, the data were best fitted to Freundlich model. The thermodynamic parameters: were determined from isotherms data, indicating endothermic, spontaneous processes and physisorption mechanism.