Preparation, Characterization, and Heavy Metal Adsorption Behavior of Zr-MCM41 and ZrFe-MCM41

A mesoporous silica (MCM41) has been doped with Zr and Fe using the hydrothermal route. The resulting material (Zr-MCM41 and ZrFe-MCM41) has been characterized by powder X-ray diffraction, nitrogen gas sorption, FT-IR, thermogravimetry and SEM. The solid was employed as a Ni(II) and Cd(II) adsorbent from aqueous solutions at room temperature. The effect of several variables (pH, metal concentration and time) and also the effect of Zr and Fe in the structure on the adsorption of Ni and Cd has been studied. Flame atomic absorption spectrometry was used to determine the Ni(II) and Cd(II) concentration in the filtrate after the adsorption process. Results obtained indicate that under the optimum conditions (pH 8 and 2 h stirring time), the maximum adsorption value (A%) for Ni(II) was 85% and for Cd was 75%.