Preparation of porous nano-calcium titanate microspheres and its adsorption behavior for heavy metal ion in water

Using D311 resin as a template, porous nano-calcium titanate microspheres (PCTOM) were prepared by a citric acid complex sol-gel method and characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), SEM and FTIR. The method's adsorption capabilities for heavy metal ions such as lead, cadmium and zinc were studied and adsorption and elution conditions were investigated. Moreover, taking the cadmium ion as an example, the thermodynamics and kinetics of the adsorption were studied. The results show that the microspheres were porous and were made of perovskite nano-calcium titanate. The lead, cadmium and zinc ions studied could be quantitatively retained at a pH value range of 5-8. The adsorption capacities of PCTOM for lead, cadmium and zinc were found to be 141.8 mg g−1, 18.0 mg g−1 and 24.4 mg g−1 respectively. The adsorption behavior followed a Langmuir adsorption isotherm and a pseudo-second-order kinetic model, where adsorption was an endothermic and spontaneous physical process. The adsorbed metal ions could be completely eluated using 2 mol L−1 HNO3 with preconcentration factors over 100 for all studied heavy metal ions. The method has also been applied to the preconcentration and FAAS determination of trace lead, cadmium and zinc ion in water samples with satisfactory results.