Adsorption of Zinc and Cyanide from Cyanide Effluents on Anionic Ion-exchange Resin

The adsorption of zinc and cyanide from cyanide effluents onto strong and weak basic anion exchange resins was studied in a batch adsorption system. Factors influencing the adsorption rates such as resin selection, resin amounts, contact time and temperature were studied and scanning electron microscopy-energy disperse spectroscopy(SEM-EDS) was used in the analysis. The present study shows that the adsorption capacity of resin 201×7 is better than that of resin 301. The adsorption process was relatively fast and came to equilibrium after 60 min. The kinetic data were analyzed with three models and the pseudo-second-order kinetic model was found to agree with the experimental data well. The equilibrium data could also be described well by Langmuir isotherm model. Thermodynamic parameters such as enthalpy change(ΔH⁰), free energy change(ΔG⁰) and entropy change(ΔS⁰) were calculated and the adsorption process was spontaneous and endothermic.