Nickel adsorption on single and dual site clay surfaces; Effect of pH and nickel loadings

We examined Ni sorption to single and dual site clays (Al dominant, Fe dominant and both Al and Fe rich sorbents) as adsorbents for removal of Ni from aqueous solutions to (i) compare the capacities, (ii) study the effect of solution pH, (iii) examine the effect of ionic strength on adsorption (iv) determine the adsorption capacity through isotherm models. Gibbsite and goethite were selected as the single site sorbent for Al and Fe while Natural Red Earth (NRE) and laterite, were used as the sorbents with dual sites for this study. The effect of pH on the sorption was studied by adjusting the pH in the range of 4-10. In these experiments, the adsorbent concentration was kept at 5 g/l of solution containing 10 mg/l Ni(II) at 25 0C. Adsorption isotherms were conducted in 0.01 M NaNO3 solution, at pH ≈ 7.5. Both single and dual site clay minerals have exhibited no dependence on ionic strength indicating inner-sphere surface complexation. However, gibbsite demonstrated highest adsorption. Adsorption increased 4-5 folds with the pH increase from 6.0 to 8.5 with maximum adsorption at pH > 8.0. Elemental mapping demonstrated the distribution of elements on the grain including sorbed Ni. These results indicate that > AlO- sites attract Ni better than >FeO- sites. Adsorption shows decrease from gibbsite > laterite > goethite > NRE. Gibbsite showed best fit for the Langmuir equation with r2 around 0.98. This indicates homogeneous adsorption. Maximum adsorption capacity for gibbsite is reported as 5.08x10-4 mol/kg. Therefore, gibbsite and laterite have a good potential to be used to remove nickel from aqueous solutions. Key words : Gibbsite, Geothite, Laterite, Natural Red Earth, Ni sorption