Ga-doped ZnO for adsorption of heavy metals from aqueous solution

The objective of this work is to find a new and highly efficient nanomaterial for the adsorption of heavy metals from aqueous solution. For this reason, Ga-doped ZnO (GZO) nanoparticles with different Ga contents have been prepared by a modified sol-gel technique. The morphological and microstructural characteristics of GZO were investigated by transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and X-ray powder diffraction (XRD) analysis. The nanopowders were used to uptake Cd(II) and Cr(VI) from aqueous solution. The obtained results show that the incorporation of Ga in zinc oxide increases the capacity adsorption of nanopowders, and GZO with 1 wt% of Ga (G1ZO) is more efficient than the other Ga-doped samples to remove the heavy metals from aqueous solution. In this work we studied also the equilibrium isotherms, adsorption reaction kinetic and mechanisms as well as, effect of initial concentration, and pH values on the removal of heavy metal ions from aqueous solution by G1ZO.