article · Applied Water Science
Raw kaolin clay sourced from Belesa, Tigo kebele in Ethiopia was modified with the cationic surfactant cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB) to enhance its ability to remove toxic hexavalent chromium from water. Structural analysis confirmed the material as kaolinite mineral and demonstrated successful surfactant coating and intercalation. Testing across various conditions, including solution acidity, contact duration, pollutant concentration, and adsorbent amount, revealed high decontamination efficiency. Under optimal equilibrium conditions of 180 minutes using 100 milligrams of the modified clay in a 10 parts per million solution, the material achieved 99 percent removal of hexavalent chromium. The uptake followed a monolayer adsorption pattern described by the Langmuir model, yielding a maximum capacity of 22.72 milligrams per gram. Kinetic analyses indicated that the adsorption mechanism is predominantly driven by electrostatic interactions, making the modified clay an effective material for treating contaminated aqueous solutions.
Hexavalent chromium is a hazardous industrial pollutant found in contaminated water supplies that poses severe environmental and human health risks. Demonstrating that naturally occurring Ethiopian kaolin clay can be effectively modified with surfactants offers a pathway toward developing affordable filtration media for water purification, supporting safer local water access and cleaner industrial discharge management.
The research represents early-stage laboratory testing of an adsorbent suitable for industrial wastewater treatment and environmental remediation. Potential users include municipal water treatment facilities and industrial operators generating heavy-metal effluent. While the bench-scale results demonstrate high removal efficiency, moving toward real-world use will require scaling the modification process, testing performance against complex multi-pollutant industrial wastewater, and evaluating adsorbent regeneration and operational life cycles.
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Abstract In the current work, we have reported a cationic surfactant-modified Ethiopian kaolin for improved adsorption of Cr(VI) from aqueous solution. The raw kaolin was modified by treating with CTAB to enhance the adsorption properties. The crystal structure and vibrational analysis of CTAB–kaolin were investigated by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and powder X-ray diffraction (p-XRD) techniques. The successful modification of kaolin by CTAB through intercalation and coating was investigated by XRD and FTIR. p-XRD confirms the raw kaolin obtained from Belesa , Tigo kebele is kaolinite mineral. The study has also focused on the application of kaolin–CTAB for adsorption of hexavalent chromium. The percent removal of Cr(VI) was investigated at different parameters such as pH, contact time, concentration of Cr(VI) and adsorbent dosage. CTAB–kaolin shows 99% removal of Cr(VI) at the adsorption equilibrium (time = 180 min, 100 mg CTAB–kaolin, 10 ppm/100 ml). The Langmuir and Freundlich isotherm models were used to investigate the adsorption process of chromium onto kaolin–CTAB composites. The equilibrium data obeyed Langmuir model than Freundlich, which shows that the adsorption process proceeds through monolayer adsorption and maximum adsorption capacity was found to be Q o = 22.72 mg/g. The pseudo -second-order kinetics model is found to be well fitted than Pseudo -first-order kinetics, which implies that the adsorption mechanism more favors electrostatic interaction between chromium and kaolin–CTAB composites. In conclusion, CTAB–kaolin was found to be a promising adsorbent for the efficient removal of Cr(VI) from the aqueous solution.
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DOI: 10.1007/s13201-019-1121-7
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