Simultaneous adsorption of lead and cadmium on MnO2-loaded resin

MnO2-loaded D301 weak basic anion exchange resin has been used as adsorbent to simultaneously remove lead and cadmium ions from aqueous solution. The effects of adsorbent dosage, solution pH and the coexistent ions on the adsorption were investigated. Experimental results showed that with the adsorbent dosage more than 0.6 g/L, both Pb2+ and Cd2+ were simultaneously removed at pH range 5–6. Except for HPO42−, the high concentration coexistent ions such as Na+, K+, Cl−, NO3−, SO42− and HCO3−, showed no significant effect on the removal efficiency of both Pb2+ and Cd2+ under the experimental conditions. The coexistence of Mg2+, Ca2+ caused the reduction of Cd2+ removal, but not for Pb2+. The adsorption equilibrium for Pb2+ and Cd2+ could be excellently described by the Langmuir isotherm model with R2 > 0.99. The maximum adsorption capacity was calculated as 80.64 mg/g for Pb2+ and 21.45 mg/g for Cd2+. The adsorption processes followed the pseudo first-order kinetics model. MnO2-loaded D301 resin has been shown to have a potential to be used as an effective adsorbent for simultaneous removal of lead and cadmium ions from aqueous solution.