Removal of Zinc Ions by Sol-Gel Silica Doped with Cibacron Blue

Chemically doped sol-gel silica has been developed by entrapping organic dye cibacron blue as a complexing reagent in porous silica prepared by the sol-gel method for removal of metal ions from water samples. In the doped sol-gel silica, the large reagent molecules are entrapped inside the pores while small metal ions can diffuse into the pores where they are complexed by the reagent and retained inside the pores. This new solid sorbent was tested for removal of Zn(II) from aqueous solutions. The kinetics, isotherm, and pH effect of the removal were investigated. With a loading of 0.10 mmol cibacron blue/g, the sol-gel silica sorbent had a capacity of 0.09 mmol Zn/g. It was demonstrated that the sol-gel silica sorbent could be regenerated and reused repeatedly.