Study of the behaviour of thorium adsorption on PAN/zeolite composite adsorbent

The adsorption behaviour of thorium from aqueous solutions by a composite adsorbent has been investigated by a batch technique. The thorium adsorption on composite adsorbent was studied as a function of initial concentration, pH, shaking time and temperature. The sorption of thorium at the determined optimum conditions follows Langmuir, Freundlich and D-R type isotherms. Langmuir constants Q = 0.04 mmol g−1 and b = 64.94 L mol−1 and of D-R parameter Xm = 0.04, β = 0.79 and of sorption energy E = 0.80 and Freundlich constants 1/n = 3.12 and cm = 0.012 mmol g−1 were evaluated. Thermodynamic parameters such as ΔH and ΔS were found to be 37.32 kJ mol−1 and 206.17 J mol−1 K−1, respectively.