Synthesis of modified mesoporous materials and comparative studies of removal of heavy metal from aqueous solutions

Abstract

The functionalized mesoporous' potential ability of binding heavy metals using different templates, namely cetyltrimethylammonium (CTAB) (adsorbent A) and triblock copolymer (Pluronic P123, EO20PO70EO20, May = 5800) (adsorbent B), was evaluated. The synthesized materials were characterized by powder X-ray diffraction (XRD), nitrogen gas sorption, FT-IR and solid-state 13C and 29Si NMR spectroscopy and thermogravimetry (TGA) measurements. In the adsorption experiment, the effects of several variables (stirring time, pH and presence of other metals in the medium) were studied. On the basis of these results, it was observed that the adsorption capacities were higher for adsorbent B than adsorbent A. The results also confirmed that the ureido group (CO-NH2) has a good affect of binding metal ion.