Synthesis, Characterization and Adsorption of Metal Ions on New Silica-Gel Organofunctionalized Compound

Abstract

Silica gel chemically modified with organic groups is widely used as an adsorbent for metal ions. In this investigation, silica gel was chemically modified with 3-chloropropyltrimethoxysilane and reacted with 2-aminothiophenol in order to yield an aromatic group immobilized on the silica gel surface and produced a compound for adsorbing Fe³⁺, Co²⁺, Ni²⁺, Cu²⁺, Zn²⁺, Cd²⁺, Tl⁺ and Tl³⁺ ions, which prepared in buffer solution at physiological pH. The characterization of new compound and its capability towards extraction of the above metal ions were studied and evaluated by a batch method. This compound showed high performance toward Fe³⁺ extraction, where its adsorption determined to be 98.1%. The order of increasing the metal ions uptake process satisfactorily coincides with increasing the hardness of these metal ions.