Adsorption behavior and mechanism of cadmium on strong-acid cation exchange resin

The adsorption behavior of Cd2+ on 001×7 strong-acid cation exchange resin was studied with the static adsorption method. The adsorption process was analyzed from thermodynamics and kinetics aspects. The influences of experimental parameters such as pH, temperature, initial concentration and adsorption rate were investigated. The experimental results show that in the studied concentration range, 001×7 resin has a good sorption ability for Cd2+, and the equilibrium adsorption data fit to Freundlich isotherms. The adsorption is an exothermic process which runs spontaneously. Kinetic analysis shows that the adsorption rate is mainly governed by liquid film diffusion. The best adsorption condition is pH 4–5. The saturated resin can be regenerated by 3 mol/L nitric acid, and the desorption efficiency is over 98%. The maximal static saturated adsorption capacity is 355 mg/g (wet resin) at 293 K. The adsorption mechanism of Cd2+ on 001×7 resin was discussed based on IR spectra.