Rapid enrichment of cesium ions in aqueous solution by copper ferrocyanide powder

In this study, copper ferrocyanide (CuFC) powder was first prepared by co-precipitation method, and the removal rate, sorption capacity and mechanism of sorption cesium on CuFC was investigated. Before and after sorption, the surface morphology and structure of CuFC were characterized systematically by the Fourier transform infrared spectrometer, the X-ray diffraction (XRD), the scanning electron microscope (SEMEDS), and the thermogravimetric analysis. Batch adsorption experiments were carried out to investigate the effects of adsorbent dose, contact time, solution pH, different initial Cs+concentrations, temperature and the effect of competitive ions on Cs+adsorption. The FTIR spectrum demonstrated that the product had characteristic absorption peaks such as –C≡N, Fe(II)–C≡N and C≡N–Cu(II), and the XRD spectrum was consistent with the CuFC standard spectrum, indicating that the CuFC was was synthesised successfully. And it can be seen from SEM and EDS that the adsorbent exhibits the same regular cubic crystal structure as the metal ferrocyanide. Kinetic parameters were fitted by the pseudo-second order model (R2= 0.999), and the adsorption process by the CuFC was chemical adsorption. The adsorption isotherms data of CuFC were well-fitted to the Langmuir (R2= 0.974). The CuFC effectively captured the Cs+ion in the presence of K+by the effect of competitive ions. Therefore, the CuFC could be effectively used as a potential adsorbent for Cs+adsorption from wastewater.