Characterization of not activated and activated minerals for their potential use as sorbents

Abstract

Use of the adsorption process has rapidly grown in recent years, accompanied by the increased environmental and quality requirements on the products. New adsorbent materials with special properties and specific applications are synthesized permanently by physical or chemical modifications, such as minerals of volcanic origin, bentonites and zeolites. Activation of these minerals improve some of their properties for use as sorbents. In the industry, chemical, thermal and mechanical activation are the most use. The aim of this work is to chemically activate bentonite and zeolite samples for their potential use as heavy metal sorbents. The method used here consisted in an activation stage of the samples under study so as to obtain an increase of the surface area, which was determined after application of the various treatments. In the case of bentonite samples, the activation was performed through the reaction of this clay mineral with an acid in solution of H2SO4. Activation of zeolites was carried out by using an NH4Cl solution. At this stage, an exchange was made between the sodalite unit ion and the NH4+ion. It may be concluded that the bentonites and zeolites under study can be used as potential heavy metal sorbents.