Efficiency of Carbonate Precipitation and Removal of Copper and Nickel Ions from their Monocomponent and Two-component Aqueous Solutions

The effect of pH and initial concentration on the removal of Cu(II) and Ni(II) ions from their monocomponent and two-component aqueous solutions using Na2CO3 as a chemical precipitation agent was investigated in this paper. Monocomponent aqueous solutions  of Cu(II) and Ni(II)  ions with their initial concentrations of 50 and 500 mg/L and two-component aqueous solution with initial concentration of 500 mg/L were prepared. The precipitation was carried out by batch method at room temperature by stirring the solution at 300 rpm for 5 minutes, resulting in the formation of precipitates. The resulting precipitate was separated by filtration from the solution. The experiment proved that Na2CO3 is a good agent for removing Cu(II) and Ni(II) ions from their monocomponent water solutions of 50 and 500 mg/L concentration and two-component water solution with initial concentration of each metal 500 mg/L. The percentage of Cu(II) removal was higher at lower pH values compared to Ni(II) removal.