Preparation, characterization and cobalt sorption performance of Alginate-SBA-15 composite as a novel adsorbent

Alginate-SBA-15 (ALG-SBA-15) was synthesized by encapsulation of the mesoporous SBA-15 in thebiopolymeric matrix of calcium alginate. This adsorbent was characterized using powder X-Ray Diffraction (XRD),nitrogen adsorption-desorption and Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy. Tests were then conducted to studythe adsorption of cobalt ions onto ALG-SBA-15 from an aqueous solution for the effect of pH, contact time and initialconcentration of cobalt in batch systems. Freundlich and Langmuir models were used for a mathematics description ofthe adsorption isotherm. The equilibrium process was described well by the Langmuir isotherm model with the maximumsorption capacity of 78.12 mg.g-1 of cobalt on ALG-SBA-15. The kinetics analysis revealed that the overall adsorptionprocess was successfully fitted with the pseudo-second-order kinetic model. All the results validated the feasibility ofALG-SBA-15 for highly effective removal of cobalt from an aqueous solution.