Cadmium ion adsorption by amine-modified activated carbon

Cadmium (Cd) is one of the most toxic metals found in water and sediments. In the effort to develop an effective adsorbent for aqueous Cd removal, activated carbon (AC) was modified with an amino-terminated organosilicon (3-aminopropyltrimethoxysilane, APS). Response surface methodology was used to optimize selected operational parameters of adsorption of aqueous Cd by considering a central composite design with three input variables, temperature of the mixture solution, the contact time and feed ratio (APS/AC), on the surface modification. Results demonstrated that the strong Cd-binding amine ligands were effectively introduced onto the AC surfaces through the silanol reaction between carbon surface functional groups (-COOH, -COH) and APS molecules. The optimized preparation condition is 77 °C, 4 h and 2.1 ratio. The adsorbent presented a favorable adsorption of the aqueous Cd(II).