Removal of trace Cd2+ from aqueous solution by foam fractionation

In recent years, aqueous foam was known as an efficient technique with high potential on being used to remove heavy metal ions from the polluted water, not only because of the low cost, simple operation, but also ascribed to the high removal efficiency of trace heavy metal ions and would not cause secondary pollution to the environment. In this paper, the removal of Cd(2+) from aqueous solution by aqueous foam stabilized by a kind of novel anionic-nonionic surfactant sodium trideceth-4 carboxylate (AEC) was investigated. The effect of conditions such as surfactant/metal ions molar ratio, surfactant concentration on the removal efficiency was studied. In large concentration range of surfactant, the removal rate was higher than 90%, and could reach up to 99.8% under the optimum conditions. The Zeta potential of gas bubbles in the AEC solutions was determined to verify the combination between the negative charged group heads of surfactant molecules and heavy metal ions, and isothermal titration calorimeter (ITC) determination was utilized to demonstrate the interaction, which helped to understand the mechanisms more clearly.