Preparation of Alginate Polymer Gel Pellets and its Adsorption on Acid Dyes
A novel calcium alginate (SA/Ca) gel pellet adsorbent was prepared by ion exchange reaction and polymerization between sodium alginate (SA) and Ca2+ in the solution, and characterized by SEM, EDS, FTIR and XRD. Taking acid orange II ( AO II) dye as the adsorption object, the influence of some important conditions about preparation and adsorption on SA/Ca properties was discussed in detail. The adsorption kinetics were studied. The results show that SA/Ca adsorbent has good adsorption effect on AO II dye under the conditions of the mass concentration ratio 2 : 5 of SA and CaCl2 solutions and reaction time of 2h at 25°C. When the adsorbent dosage is 4g/L and initial dye concentration of natural pH is 1000 mg/L, the adsorption equilibrium can basically reach in 180 min at 25°C with the adsorption capacity of 225mg/g and more than 90% of removal efficiency. The adsorption kinetics fully fit pseudo-second order model. The characterization results indicate that the SA powder is composed of various irregular particles, while dry SA/Ca solid are all pellets with diameter of about 1mm. The surface of inhomogeneous spheres is stacked with obstacles, and folds and ravines coexist. Ca2+ and most Na+ in SA molecule carried out ion exchange and formed a stable network-structure polymer SA/Ca gel pellets, which can effectively remove acid dyes from wastewater, and are easy to be separated after adsorption. As a biopolymer adsorbent with simple preparation method, environmental friendliness and non-toxic side effects, SA/Ca has good development potential and application prospects.