Studies on the removal of Cd (II), Hg (II), AND Bi (III) metal ions using nano Fe2O3 composite micro reticular resins

Phenol-Formaldehyde resin (PFR) grafted Nano-Fe2O3 (nFe2O3) was fabricated for Bi(III), Hg(II) and Cd(II) removal using a novel polycondensation method. The present materials were carefully examined by FT-IR spectra (FT-IR), Scanning electron microscope (SEM), energy-dispersive microanalysis (EDX), and thermo gravimetric analysis (TGA). PFR-nFe2O3 showed excellent uptake effects for Bi(III), Hg(II) and Cd(II) removal with a pseudo-second order model. The Freundlich models well described the equilibrium isotherm than the Langmuir model. Thermodynamic parameters showed that adsorptions were feasible, spontaneous and endothermic. These suggested that both electrostatic adsorption and chemisorptions were involved. The results indicated that PFR-nFe2O3 could well be used as a high performance sorbent for the heavy metal ions removal from aqueous solution with a list of Bi(III), Hg(II) & Cd(II) ions.