Heavy Non-ferrous Metals Adsorption from Water Solutions with Granular Filtering Materials Based on Silicon Rock

Water factor plays an important role in formation of healthy environment for human beings. Due to unfavorable anthropogenic impact upon environment certain surface and groundwater water supply sources are contaminated with heavy metal compounds. Clints (siliceous rocks) are considered the most promising materials for the natural and waste waters treatment from such ingredients. The paper presents the results of the siliceous rocks’ physical/chemical and operational properties studying. It has been shown that these siliceous rocks satisfy all requirements to filtering materials. Methods of physical/chemical analysis were applied for studying the adsorption processes nature. It was for the first time stated (with methods of potentiometric titration and infra-red spectroscopy) that siliceous rocks included the fixed functional ion-exchange groups in their composition and were subacid cationits. Beside chemical adsorption heavy metal ions interact with siliceous rocks due to the action of their physical nature forces. Physical adsorption contributes the most in the heavy metal compounds up-taking by filtering materials, this is supported by the fact of low values of the process activation energy: from 3 to 8 kJ/gram-molecule. Parameters of the process of heavy metal ions adsorption with siliceous rocks in static and dynamic conditions have been calculated in accordance with the experimental results. Influence of salt content and the liquid phase pH value on the adsorption process has been stated. Optimal conditions for the worked siliceous rocks regeneration have been determined. New data on heavy metals cations adsorption with nuclear filtering materials confirm principal possibility of their use for natural and waste waters treatment.