Improved modification of clinoptilolite with silver using ultrasonic radiation

The modification of natural clinoptilolite with silver ions using ultrasound has been investigated in the current work. The modification process was performed using clinoptilolite of different fractions (0–3.0 mm) over the temperature range of 25–55 °C, ultrasonic power range of 8.0–12.5 W and AgNO₃ concentration range of 0.01–0.1 M. The zeolite modification was performed in the presence of sonication and mechanical stirring in separate runs for comparison. Fundamental analysis demonstrated that the use of ultrasound ensures desorption of air from clinoptilolite particles and accelerates the diffusion of Ag⁺ ions and subsequent ion exchange. Increasing the particle size of clinoptilolite led to a natural decrease in its sorption capacity. A slight increase in the sorption capacity with an increase in the equivalent particle diameter from 0.081 to 0.35 mm was seen due to changes in the structure of clinoptilolite particles during mechanical grinding. The calculated temperature coefficient of the sorption process of Ag⁺ ions as <1.47 means that the modification takes place with dominant control in the intradiffusion region. Increasing the power of ultrasonic irradiation did not provide a monotonous change in the sorption capacity of clinoptilolite. Increasing the concentration of argentum nitrate solution provided an increase in the content of silver ions in clinoptilolite. In general, the advantage of using ultrasonic vibrations to modify the natural clinoptilolite of different fractions with Ag⁺ ions was demonstrated in terms of achieving higher sorption capacity, also elucidating the effect of different operating conditions.