Sorption/desorption of radionickel on/from Na-montmorillonite: kinetic and thermodynamic studies

In this work, Na-montmorillonite was used as a novel adsorbent for the sorption of Ni(II) from aqueous solutions. The sorption and desorption of Ni(II) on Na-montmorillonite was investigated as the function of pH, ionic strength, Ni(II) concentrations and temperature. The results indicated that the sorption of Ni(II) on Na-montmorillonite was strongly dependent on pH, ionic strength and temperature. The sorption of Ni(II) increases slowly from 22.1 to 51.4% at pH range 2–6.5, abruptly at pH 6.5–9, and at last maintains high level with increasing pH at pH > 9 in 0.1 mol/L NaNO₃ solutions. The Ni(II) kinetic sorption on Na-montmorillonite was fitted by the pseudo-second-order model better than by the pseudo-first-order model and the experimental data implies that Ni(II) sorption on montmorillonite were mainly controlled by the film diffusion mechanism. The Langmuir, Freundlich and D–R models were used to simulate the sorption data at three different temperatures (298.15, 318.15 and 338.15 K) and the results indicated that Langmuir model simulates the experimental data better than Freundlich and D–R models. The sorption–desorption isotherm of Ni(II) on montmorillonite suggested that the sorption is irreversible. The irreversible sorption of Ni(II) on montmorillonite indicates that montmorillonite can be used to pre-concentration and solidification of Ni(II) from large volumes of solution and to storage Ni(II) ions stably.