The feasibility study of CAU-1 as an adsorbent for Cu, Zn, Pb, As, Fe and endocrine disrupting chemical bisphenol-A (BPA)

This work discusses the feasibility of CAU-1 as an adsorbent for both heavy metals and bisphenol A (BPA). CAU-1 was synthesised solvothermally at 120 °C for 8 h. Batch adsorption study was done to investigate the feasibility of CAU-1 as the adsorbent. The CAU-1 weight was constant throughout the study, 0.01 g. CAU-1 was characterised using zeta potential analysis, SEM, FTIR, TGA, and XRD. CAU-1 was only able to remove BPA and not able to adsorb heavy metals due to the repulsion forces between CAU-1 and the heavy metals. Thus, BPA was used as adsorbate for CAU-1 adsorption study. The optimum conditions for BPA adsorption on CAU-1 were at pH 7 and 3 h contact time. The adsorption capacity increased infinitely with increasing concentration of the BPA. The maximum equilibrium adsorption capacity (qe) of CAU-1 for BPA was 310.1 mg/g at 25 °C, and the adsorption followed the pseudo-second-order kinetic model. The thermodynamic studies indicate that the adsorption reaction is a spontaneous and endothermic process, a favourable reaction.