Plasma O$_{2}$ modifies the structure of synthetic zeolite-A to improve the removal of cadmium ions from aqueous solutions

Authors

ALAA FAHMY
AHMED ELZAREF
HANAN YOUSSEF
HASSAN SHEHATA
MAGDY WASSEL
JÖRG FRIEDRICH
FABIENNE PONCIN-EPAILLARD
DOMINIQUE DEBARNOT

Abstract

The present study addresses the removal of cadmium ions (Cd(II)) from aqueous solutions at a pH of 7.5 using zeolite-A activated by exposure to oxygen plasma. The activation process was performed over a wide range of plasma powers (10, 20, 30, and 40 W) and exposure times (30 to 360 s). Oxygen plasma cannot chemically modify zeolite to a considerable extent, but it can clean the surface, open blocked pores, and induce the formation of additional OH groups via exposure to humidity in ambient air. Therefore, Cd$^{+2}$ ion removal is increased by approximately 10% with the plasma treatments. Infrared-attenuated total reflectance spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, and energy dispersive spectroscopy were applied to analyze the changes in the surface structure and properties of the samples.

DOI

10.3906/kim-1808-14

Keywords

Cadmium removal, water treatment, zeolite-A, oxygen plasma, zeolite modification

First Page

172

Last Page

184

Recommended Citation

FAHMY, ALAA; ELZAREF, AHMED; YOUSSEF, HANAN; SHEHATA, HASSAN; WASSEL, MAGDY; FRIEDRICH, JÖRG; PONCIN-EPAILLARD, FABIENNE; and DEBARNOT, DOMINIQUE (2019) "Plasma O$_{2}$ modifies the structure of synthetic zeolite-A to improve the removal of cadmium ions from aqueous solutions," Turkish Journal of Chemistry: Vol. 43: No. 1, Article 15. https://doi.org/10.3906/kim-1808-14
Available at: https://journals.tubitak.gov.tr/chem/vol43/iss1/15