Kinetic study of Cs+ and Eu3+ ions sorption by zirconium oxide powder

Full text: Zirconium oxide powder was chemically synthesized by sol-gel method and characterized using infrared spectra and x-ray diffraction. The sorptive removal of cesium and europium ions from aqueous waste solution using synthetic zirconium oxide powder was investigated using batch technique. Experiments were carried out as a function of pH, time and temperature. The uptake of europium was found to be greater than that of cesium. A comparison of kinetic models applied to the sorption process of each ion was evaluated for the pseudo first order, the pseudo second order, and homogeneous particle diffusion kinetic models, respectively. The results showed that both the pseudo second order and the homogeneous particle diffusion models (HPDM) were found to best correlate the experimental rate data. The numerical values of the rate constants and particle diffusion coefficients were determined from the graphical representation of the proposed models. Activation energy (Ea) and entropy (Δ S*) of activation for each sorption process were also calculated from the linearized form of Arrhenius equation. (author)