CHARACTERIZATION OF NATURAL ZEOLITE AND DETERMINATION ITS ADSORPTION PROPERTIES

Abstract

Pollution of water by toxic substances is one of the major reason concerning human health as well as the environmental quality. In terms of pollution, mining activities represent a serious threat. Countries of the middle Europe, where extraction of mineral resources takes place a long period, have to solve the problems of wastewater containing whole spectra of heavy metals, which are dangerous to the environment. Finding of the new and cheap ways of wastewater contaminated by heavy metals treatment can increase the quality of the environment in the affected localities and thus prevent adverse effects on fauna, flora or human beings. Sorption techniques belong to a cost effective methods that are able to effectively remove heavy metals. For the overall understanding of the sorption process, it is necessary to characterize and determine the properties of the used adsorbents. The paper deals with characterization of natural zeolite before and after sorption process under acidic conditions. The zeolite was characterized using Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy and N 2 adsorption/desorption isotherms.