Several concentrations of adsorbent and adsorbate were tested, trying to cover a large range of possible real conditions. Results showed that the Freundlich isotherm represented well the adsorption equilibrium reached between nanoparticles and chromium, whereas adsorption kinetics could be modeled by a pseudo-second-order expression. The separation of chromium–cerium nanoparticles from the medium and the desorption of chromium using sodium hydroxide without cerium losses was obtained. Nanoparticles agglomeration and morphological changes during the adsorption–desorption process were observed by TEM.
Chromium nanoparticles and morphology changes during the process
In this study, suspended cerium oxide nanoparticles stabilized with hexamethylenetetramine were used for the removal of dissolved chromium VI in pure water.
Another remarkable result obtained in this study is the low toxicity in the water treated by nanoparticles measured by the Microtox® commercial method. These results can be used to propose this treatment sequence for a clean and simple removal of drinking water or wastewater re-use when a high toxicity heavy metal such as chromium VI is the responsible for water pollution.
ZnO and Cr doped ZnO nanoparticles were synthesized by chemical vapor synthesis (CVS) which is a modified chemical vapor deposition (CVD) process. The resulting powders consist of nanocrystalline particles and were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), nitrogen adsorption (BET), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), energy dispersive X-ray analysis (EDX), element analysis, and extended X-ray absorption fine structure (EXAFS) spectroscopy. The grain size decreases with increasing dopant concentration. The lattice constants extracted by the Rietveld method from XRD data vary slightly with doping concentration. XRD and EXAFS data analysis show that the Chromium dopant atoms are incorporated into the wurtzite host lattice.