DEVELOPMENT OF ANIONIC CLAYS FOR WATER TREATMENT


Prof. Dr. Güleda ENGİN

Tez Türü: Doktora

Tezin Yürütüldüğü Kurum: Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine, Faculty of Engineering, Chemical and Process Engineering, Birleşik Krallık

Tez Danışmanı: Dr. David Whıte

Tezin Onay Tarihi: 2000

Tezin Dili: İngilizce

Desteklendiği Program: Diğer

Özet:

The main aim of this study is to investigate the feasibility of utilising hydrotalcite and its derived products as ion-exchangers for the removal of anionic impurities from aqueous solution. Hydrotalcite is a naturally occurring, rarely found anionic clay. It has a positively charged layered structure consisting of two metal oxide layers and an interlayer of carbonate anions. Hydrotalcites can, therefore, be used as ion-exchangers. However, the carbonate anion is highly selected by natural hydrotalcite, making the ion-exchange capacity for other anions very low. In this project synthetic hydrotalcite, hydrotalcite-like compounds and thermally treated hydrotalcite samples were prepared in order to increase ion-exchange capacities and remove anionic impurities from waters.

 

The thesis provides a literature review with an emphasis on hydrotalcite structure and its environmental applications. The synthesis methods for synthetic hydrotalcite and its derivatives have been also included.  The physical structure and chemical properties of these anionic clays were characterised using standard characterisation techniques, such as X-ray diffraction, N2 adsorption and particle size analyses. The preliminary studies on the characterisation of hydrotalcites indicated that the structure of the clay was similar to those in literature. Ion-exchange behaviour of hydrotalcites were also investigated by zeta potential measurements. The anion-exchange capacities of hydrotalcites were determined by the most common anionic impurities. Tests on humic acid as an example for organic pollutants were done as well. A series of batch technique experiments have been carried out for this purpose. The experimental data show the ability of synthetic hydrotalcites for the removal of anionic impurities from water. An extended mechanism for co-precipitation in parallel to ion-exchange mechanism have also been proposed. This mechanism is used to explain some of the experimental findings. The thesis, finally, recommends hydrotalcite-like compounds and modified hydrotalcite with a magnetic property as good materials for water treatment in environmental engineering applications.