Evaluation of the efficiency of sulfonated polystyrene in the removal of CD2+ from groundwater

This research study focused on the evaluation of sulfonated polystyrene in the adsorption of cadmium metal from groundwater. the researchers studied the effect of the following parameters: ph of 2,4 and 6,initial concentration of 100,200 and 300 ppm,contact time of 60,120 and 180 minutes,in evaluating the efficiency of the adsorbent sulfonated polystyrene in removing metal ion from synthetic and actual groundwater. the optimum conditions for each parameter were determined using box–behnken design. the experiments showed that the only parameter which affects the adsorption capability of sulfonated polystyrene was the initial concentration while the other two parameters were insignificant. further,experiments showed that the order of the adsorption mechanism was pseudo–second order kinetics while obeying langmuir monolayer curve. also the predicted percent removal obtained using box–behnken design was 52.88%. under the same optimal parameters,the percent removal obtained for the synthetic groundwater was 51.27% while a value of 47.6% was obtained for the actual groundwater. the percentage removal for synthetic groundwater is almost the same to the predicted value. on the other hand,the removal for the actual groundwater obtained was lower than that of the synthetic groundwater which can be accounted to other species present in groundwater. © school of engineering,taylor’s university.