Uptake of chloride ion from aqueous solution by calcined layered double hydroxides: equilibrium and kinetic studies

Layered double hydroxides (LDH) calcined within a certain temperature range (denoted as CLDH) have been shown to recover their original layered structure in the presence of appropriate anions. In the light of this so-called "memory effect", uptake of chloride ion from aqueous solution by calcined MgAl-CO3 LDH was investigated in batch mode. The equilibrium isotherm showed that the uptake of chloride ion by CLDH was consistent with the Langmuir and Freundlich equations and that the Langmuir model gave a better fit to the experimental data than the Freundlich model. The maximum uptake capacity of CLDH for chloride ion was 149.5 mg/g, close to the stoichiometric uptake (168 mg/g). The influence of varying pH of solution, initial chloride concentration, adsorbent quantity, and temperature on the kinetics of chloride removal has also been explored. Four kinetic models were used to fit the experimental data, and it was found that the pseudo-second-order kinetics model could be used to describe the uptake process satisfactorily. The calculated value of Ea was found to be 56.8 kJ/mol, which suggests that the process of uptake of chloride ion is controlled by the rate of reaction of chloride ion with the CLDH rather than diffusion. A mechanism for removal of chloride ion has been confirmed by X-ray diffraction, FT-IR spectroscopy and TG-MS measurements.