Organic chemistry

Endothermic process

Nanocomposite

Nuclear chemistry

Langmuir adsorption model

Adsorption

Engineering

Catalysis

Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy

Metal ions in aqueous solution

Inorganic chemistry

Chemistry

Zeolite

Glutaraldehyde

Polyvinyl alcohol

Metal

Chemical engineering

Chromatography

Arabian Journal of Chemistry

Functionalized Polyvinyl alcohol/sodium alginate (PVA/SA) beads were synthesized via blending Polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) with sodium alginate (SA) and the glutaraldehyde was used as a cross-linking agent. The zeolite nanoparticles (Zeo NPs) incorporated PVA/SA resulting Zeo/PVA/SA nanocomposite (NC) beads were synthesized for removal of some heavy metal from wastewater. The synthesizes beads were characterized via Fourier transforms infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), X-ray diffraction (XRD), particle size analyzer (PSA), and scanning electron microscope (SEM). The adsorption kinetics of the selected metal ions onto Zeo/PVA/SA NC beads followed the pseudo-first-order model (PFO) and the adsorption isotherm model was well fitted by the Langmuir model. Moreover, the thermodynamic studies were also examined; the outcomes showed that the adsorption mechanisms of the selective metal ions were endothermic, the chemical in nature, spontaneous adsorption on the surface of the Zeo/PVA/SA NC beads. The removal efficiency using Zeo/PVA/SA NC modified beads reached maximum at the pH value of 6.0 for Pb2+, Cd2+, Sr2+, Cu2+, Zn2+, Ni2+, Mn2+ and Li2+ with 99.5, 99.2, 98.8, 97.2, 95.6, 93.1, 92.4 and 74.5%, respectively, while the highest removal are achieved at pH = 5 for Fe3+ and Al3+ with 96.5 and 94.9%, respectively and decreased at lower or higher pH values. The survival count (%) of the E. coli cells were 34% on the SA beads, 11% on the PVA/SA, and 1% on the Zeo/PVA/SA NC modified beads, after 120 min exposure at 25 °C. Reusability experimental displays that the synthesized beads preserved a significant decrease in the sorption capacity after 10 repeating cycles. The Zeo/PVA/SA NC beads were able to eliminate 60–99.8% of Al3+, Fe3+, Cr3+, Co2+, Cd2+, Zn2+, Mn2+, Ni2+, Cu2+, Li2+, Sr2+, Si2+, V2+, and Pb2+ ions from the natural wastewater samples collected from 10th Ramadan City, Cairo, Egypt.

Using Zeolite/Polyvinyl alcohol/sodium alginate nanocomposite beads for removal of some heavy metals from wastewater