Removal of Heavy Metals via Adsorption using Natural Clay Material

Abstract

Removal of heavy metals from its solution has been investigated by using adsorption clay material from El-Hammam district (Alexandria), with high silica content ~ 53 wt % was selected to verify this purpose. The clay material has been characterized by applying different techniques; x-ray analyses to investigate the crystalline structure (x-ray diffraction), the constitutes of the clay material (x-ray florescence) and thermal analysis to trace the structure changes that accompanying the thermal treatment.FeCl₂, Ni(NO₃)₂.6H₂O, and ZnCl₂ solutions have been used as metal model compounds to evaluate the adsorption efficiency of the clay material. Results indicated that the adsorption of heavy metals from its single metal solutions followed the order Fe> Zn > Ni.

Key words: Adsorption, Adsorbent, Bentonite, Montmorillonite, Heavy metals