Studies on sorption of cadmium (II) ions onto Haro river sand from aqueous media using radiotracer and voltammetric techniques

Sorption of Cd(II) ions on Haro river sand has been studied using radiotracer technique. The effects of pH and acid concentrations on the sorption were studied. The sorption increases with pH, reaches a maximum at pH7 and decreases at higher pH values. With acids, it was found that sorption decreases with increasing acid concentration, and for more oxidizing acids sorption was less. Kinetic studies indicate that mostly intra particle diffusion occurs with first order rate constant of 18.45 x 10 -2 min -1 . The sorption data follow the Freundlich and Dubinin-Radushkevich (D-R) isotherms. In addition to the radiotracer method, voltammetric technique was applied and the results by the two techniques are in good agreement. The sorption free energy value indicates that adsorption process is chemisorption. The effect of temperature was studied and values of ΔH, AS and AG for Cd(II) have been calculated which are 20.15 kJ mol -1 , 74.04 J mol -1 K -1 and - 1.754 kJ mol -1 . Adsorption of Cd(II) on Haro river sand is endothermic, spontaneous and entropy driven. The effect of different anions and cations at different concentrations was studied. Levels of cadmium have been monitored in water and sediments.