Abstract
The present work investigated the potential of using zeolite (clinoptilolite), montmorillonite (Swy2), and Conocarpus biochar as adsorbents to remove Ra-226 from aqueous solution. The effect of the initial Ra-226 concentrations on sorbents' equilibrium activity concentrations and sorbents' radium removal efficiency were investigated. The results showed that zeolite has a higher removal efficiency for Ra-226 in comparison with the efficiencies of montmorillonite and biochar. In addition to the linear isotherm model, the Freundlich model, followed by Temkin's model, provided a better description of the adsorption process than the Langmuir model. Kinetic studies indicated that a pseudo-second-order kinetic model could be the best fit for the adsorption of Ra-226 onto the three investigated sorbents, which suggests that the mechanism of adsorption of Ra-226 by sorbents was chemisorption. The intraparticle diffusion model indicated that adsorption of Ra-226 onto the sorbents involves a multistep process: (i) boundary layer diffusion and (ii) intraparticle diffusion. Moreover, the remediation of groundwater samples polluted with Ra-226 was assessed using the investigated sorbents; the results showed that zeolite also has the highest removal efficiency among other sorbents. Thus, the low cost, availability, and the high adsorption efficiency of zeolite can be a promising sorbent on Ra-226 removal from aqueous solutions and groundwater remediation.