Wastewater pollution by heavy metals is a key environmental and social concern because of discharge of industrial wastewater without proper treatment into the local water bodies. In present study, the adsorption of heavy metals (Pb and Cd) was evaluated onto three kinds of magnetite having different particle sizes (from micrometric to nanometric) and surface properties under batch and dynamic flow conditions. X-ray powder diffraction (XRD) and Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) was used for magnetite characterization. Magnetite characterization revealed that particle size was M3 &gt; M2 &gt; M1 while a reverse order was found for surface area (M1 &gt; M2 &gt; M3). Kinetic adsorption of Pb and Cd onto three magnetites was monitored at various time intervals (0h, 1h, 2h, 3h, 5h, 10h, and 24h), pH values and metal concentration. The results of the study showed that M1 and M2 have the higher adsorption capacity due to large surface area as compared to M3. Obtained results indicate that kinetics and extent of sorption was strongly affected by the particle size of tested magnetites (M1 &gt; M2 &gt; M3). Similar trend was obtained under flow through conditions where contaminated water was injected into a magnetite-packed column. Transport of heavy metals in magnetite-packed column was found associated to the instantaneous sorption without any significant effect of kinetic limitation. These results highlighted the role of magnetite for heavy metal adsorption which is of great significance to design a remediation strategy for contaminated wastewater.

Reactivity of various kinds of magnetite to adsorb heavy metals from contaminated wastewater

249th National Meeting (2015)

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