Avat Ghasemi - Departament of Chemistry, Tehran North Branch, Islamic Azad University, ۱۹۱۳۶۷۴۷۱۱, Tehran, Iran
Sarvin Mohammadi-Aghdam - Department of Chemistry, Payame Noor University, ۱۹۳۹۵۴۶۹۷, Tehran, Iran

Contamination of natural water with organic pollutants is a problem of major concern and the demand for effective adsorbents for the removal of toxic compounds is increasing. At present work tetramethoxy orthosilane (TMOS) xerogel were synthesized. Xerogels are nano-porous materials obtained from drying the sol-gels of tetraalkoxy silanes such as TMOS. They carry negative surface charges in water where the pH is higher than the Point of Zero Charge. This feature was employed to load divalent metal cations on the surfaces of these materials. Although xerogels do not show affinity for adsorption of chlorophenols from aqueous medium, TMOS xerogel loaded with Cd2+ (TMOS-Cd) showed a 291 percent increase in 2,4,6-trichlorophenol (TCP) adsorption compared to that of neat TMOS xerogel. TMOS-Cd adsorbent is stable and follows a chemisorption mechanism for adsorption of TCP.

Chlorophenols, Cd2+, Nano-porous, Xerogel