A Study on Adsorption of Lead(II) in Wastewater Using Natural Kaolinite

천연 고령토의 폐수 중 납 흡착에 관한 연구

Lead(II) removal efficiency by natural kaolinite was investigated through laboratory experiments. This study was conducted in two phases-sorption and desorption. In the adsorption study, the influence of sorption kinetics and sorption isotherm and various parameters such as pH, temperature, coexisting other heavy metal ions on the lead adsorption was investigated. And desorption study was carried out in order to find the re-usability of kaolinite as an adsorbent. The results of the study are as follows. 1. Sorption kinetics was investigated under the condition of 2.5 mg/l adsorbent concentration, pH 6.5$\pm$0.05, temperature $30\pm 0.5\circ$C, initial lead(II) concentration 25 mg/l. Adsorption rate was initially rapid and the extent of adsorption arrived at adsorption equilibrium with 73% adsorption efficiency in an hour. 2. The sorption isotherm experiment was made with different initial lead(II) concentration. A linearized Freundlich equation was used to fit the acquired experimental data. As a result, Freundlich constants, the sorption intensity (1/n) was 0.47 and the measure of sorption (k) was 2.44. So, it was concluded that sorption of lead(II) by kaolinite is effective. 3. The effect of pH on lead(II) sorption by kaolinite shows that at a pH of 3, only 6% of the total lead(II) was adsorbed and at a pH 9, 97% of the lead(II) was removed. And the effect of temperature on lead(II) sorption by kaolinite shows that as the temperature increased, the amount of lead(II) sorption per unit weight of kaolinite increased. But the effect was minor (p<0.05). 4. Sorption isotherm of lead coexisting cadmium (II) or zinc (II) was lower than that of lead itself. It was caused by the result of competitive sorption to adsorption site. And there was no difference between the sorption isotherm of cadmium and zinc. 5. In desorption studies, only 5.12% desorption took place in distilled water, while 52.08% in 0.1 N hydrochloric acid. Consequently used kaolinite could be regenerated by hydrochoric acid.