Two spherical composite adsorbents namely polyacrylonitrilepotassium cobalt hexacyanoferrates (PAN-KCoCF) and polyacrylonitrilepotassium nickel hexacyanoferrates (PAN-KNiCF) were synthesized. The effects of liquid flow rate, bed height and presence of other cations on the adsorption of cesium were investigated by conducting fixed-bed columns. The results showed that the column performed well at lowest flow rate for PAN-KNiCF. Flow rate examined had little influence on the adsorption of PAN-KCoCF. The breakthrough time decreased with decreasing bed height for both PAN-KCoCF and PAN-KNiCF. In addition, the existence of K+, Na+, NH4+, Ca2+and Mg2+in solution caused a reduction of maximum adsorption capacity for both of the composites. The bed depth service time (BDST) model and the Thomas model were used to analyze the experimental data and the model parameters were evaluated. Good agreement of the experimental breakthrough curves with the model predictions was observed.
