NOVEL ALGINATE/BENTONITE HYDROGEL: APPLICATION IN WASTEWATER REMEDIATION

NINAGO, MARIO D.; HORST, M. FERNANDA; LENCINA, M.M. SOLEDAD; VILLAR, MARCELO A.; LASALLE, VERONICA

Buenos Aires

Workshop; II Workshop en Polímeros Biodegradables y Biocompuestos; 2015

Facultad de Ciencias Económicas de la UBA

The use of bentonite for heavy metal and organic dyes removal in water system is an economical and high efficiently alternative against the usually applied purification methods. However, during the post-treatment stage two important disadvantages can be mentioned: (I) upon contact with water, bentonite swells and forms highly stable colloidal suspensions, being difficult to separate from the aqueous system and (II), its suspensions clogged filtration columns impeding water from flowing through [1]. Immobilization of clay sorbents is the approach adopted to mitigate clogging and post-treatment separation problems. In this work, we report the use of calcium alginate hydrogels with and without enological bentonite for cadmium removal as a model metal. The characterization of final materials and the adsorption efficiency were evaluated.