Competitive adsorption of Lead, Copper and Zinc ions on polymeric Al/Fe modified clinoptilolite

The individual and competitive adsorption capacities of Pb2+, Cu2+ and Zn2+ on clinoptilolite and polymeric Al/Fe modified clinoptilolite were studied. In single systems, adsorption capacity of Pb2+ exceeded that of Cu2+ and Zn2+, and the adsorption capacities of Pb2+, Cu2+ and Zn2+ by polymeric Al/Fe modified clinoptilolite were greater than clinoptilolite. In binary isometric competition adsorption, adsorption capacities of Pb2+, Cu2+ and Zn2+ by clinoptilolite and polymeric Al/Fe modified clinoptilolite decreased compared with single systems. In binary non -isometric competition adsorption, adsorption of Zn2+ from solutions containing a fixed Zn2+ concentration was severely depressed (34%, 26% by clinoptilolite and polymeric Al/Fe (PAFC) modified clinoptilolite, respectively) by increasing the concentration of Cu2+ in the solution, but inverting the roles of Cu2+ and Zn2+ caused only a relatively minor reduction in adsorption of Cu2+. What's more in other non-equal competition binary systems, the effect of metal adsorption was little. In general, the strength of adsorption followed the order of Pb2+ > Cu2+ > Zn2+ and the order of PAFC modified clinoptilolite > clinoptilolite.