Synthesis of montmorillonite-alginate beads applied to the kinetic study of paraquat adsorption

ETCHEVERRY, MARIANA; ZANINI, GRACIELA

Congreso; The 11th International Conferences on Interfaces Against Pollutions (IAP2021); 2021

Paraquat (1′-dimethyl-4,4′-bipyridiniumdichloride, PQ) is a quaternary ammonium herbicide. Although its use is restricted within the European Union, as it is considered a highly hazardous pesticide (HHP), it is still used worldwide, so further research into this pollutant is needed. Water pollutants removal is mainly carried out by adsorption processes. These processes require the use of adsorbents with some features such as low cost, accessibility and non-toxicity. Alginate (Alg)-Montmorillonite (Mt) beads have been effective for the adsorption of PQ. The aim of this work is synthesise and characterize alginate beads loaded with a 70% of montmorillonite (Alg-Mt70) at different resident times in CaCl2 in order to analyse the effect of the ionic gelation process on the PQ adsorption process. In addition, the adsorption kinetic of the pollutant paraquat on Alg-Mt70 beads was evaluated.