Simulation of antimony adsorption on nano-zero valent iron and kaolinite and analyzing the influencing parameters

Antimony is one of the most toxic pollutants in industrial and mineral wastewaters threatening the life of humans and other creatures. We simulated the adsorption of antimony in the presence of nano-zero valent iron (nZVI) adsorbent, on kaolinite and in the presence of nZVI coated on kaolinite from mineral wastewater using VISUAL MINTEQ 3.1 software. Our aim was to determine the factors affecting the adsorption of antimony by applying simulation. The simulation was performed using an adsorption model of a diffuse layer model. The results of the simulation indicated that the nZVI concentration, initial concentrations of antimony and pH factor are effective on the adsorption of antimony. In the conducted stimulation, the optimum pH was 2–5 and the highest adsorption occurred in an acidic state. With increasing initial concentrations of antimony in the simulation, we concluded that nZVI had absorbed various concentrations above 90% and, by increasing the concentration of nZVI, antimony adsorption rate increased. The increased surface area of nZVI and the expansion of more interchangeable surfaces available for reaction with antimony ions causes more antimony ions to be adsorbed. In all cases, the coefficient of determination between the laboratory results and the model predictions that was obtained was more than 0.9.