Abstract

We investigated the kinetics and thermodynamics of adsorption of hexavalent chromium with different types of starch functionalized mixed phase iron oxide nanoparticles (previously reported in literature) as adsorbents. The data for kinetics of batch adsorption at the optimum pH was found to best fit the pseudo second order kinetics model. The activation energy of adsorption confirmed that the removal of Cr (VI) was by chemisorption on the SIONPs surfaces. On the other hand, experiments on the thermodynamics of adsorption showed that adsorption capacity for Cr (VI) increases with temperature.

Keywords: Adsorption activation energy, chromium, iron oxide nanoparticles, kinetics, starch, thermodynamics.