Drinking water treatment sludge as an efficient adsorbent for heavy metals removal

摘要

Green chemists paid much more attention towards the alternative ways to reutilize waste materials instead of its disposal in a non-ecofriendly manner. In this study, drinking-water treatment sludge (DWTS), which is a by-product resulted from drinking water treatment plants, was successfully applied as an adsorbent for Pb(II), Cd(II) and Ni(II) removal from wastewater. The physicochemical characteristics of DWTS were investigated using X-ray diffraction (XRD), X-ray fluorescence (XRF), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and N-2 adsorption-desorption isotherms.