Abstract:
Various industries like galvanizing, metallurgical, electroplating, mining,
pharmaceuticals, agrochemicals and leather industry produce metal-containing waste
waters that have harmful effects on the environment as well as human health. For this
purpose, UiO-66 (Zr-MOF) adsorbent was prepared to evaluate the removal capacity of
selected metals Lead Pb(II), Cadmium Cd(II) and Zinc (Zn(II) from aqueous solution. The
adsorbent UiO-66(Zr-MOF) was synthesized by solvothermal method and was
characterized using XRD, TGA, SEM-EDX, AAS, BET and FTIR. The results indicated that
UiO-66(Zr-MOF) demonstrated a high adsorption capacity which may possibly arise from
its high porosity and smaller particle size. Adsorption study was carried out by batch
experiment. The effects of different experimental parameters, namely, solution pH,
adsorbent dose, contact time, and initial metal concentrations were determined. The
isotherm experiment showed that equilibrium data were well fitted to the Freundlich
model. From kinetic study, pseudo-second order model gave a best fit to the adsorption of
metals on the adsorbent. The thermodynamic parameters were calculated and the results
showed that the adsorption of metals on the adsorbent was spontaneous and endothermic
process. The regeneration of metals saturated UiO-66(Zr-MOF) was investigated by using
NaOH solution and the result revealed that, UiO-66(Zr-MOF) can be easily regenerated
and re-used several times, indicating that this adsorbent could have great potential for themetals adsorption from wastewater.
