Adsorption Study of Metal Ions Using Zirconia Nanopowders

The present work deals with the synthesis of nanostructured ZrO2particles, with and without surfactant (CTAB) for the adsorption of metal ionsof Fe (III), Co (II) and Ni (II). The work involves systematic study and analysis of the prepared sample aswell as study of the adsorption properties of the prepared sample using various characterization techniques like XRD, BET, UVVis spectroscopy and FESEM. XRD confirmed the phase of the samples as t-ZrO2with a crystallite size of 7.3 nm. BET measurements determined the surface area as 55 m2g-1 with particle size of 19.2 nm. UV-Vis spectroscopy helped in the determination of adsorption isotherm and order of the reaction. Generally the samples followed Freundlich adsorption isotherm and pseudo-second order kinetics. Fe (III) case showed the highest adsorption among all the three whereas Ni (II) showed lowest adsorption in case of without surfactant and Co (II) showed lowest adsorption in case of with surfactant. Samples with surfactant showed better adsorption phenomenon than samples without surfactant.