Adsorption of cerium using pumice based inorganic and organic composites

Technology Critical Elements (TCEs) have gained a high commercial importance in our daily life. They are in intensive use in the sectors of solar panels and many electronical devices. In this thesis, adsorption and recovery by desorption process of cerium (one of rare earth elements) using pumice based inorganic and organic composites have been investigated. Polyacrylamid organic hydrogels have been synthesized. According to high performance of swelling and diffusions calculated for each hydrogel, adsorption and desorption studies were performed with pumice embedded-polyacrylamide hydrogel that yielded the best performance. Accordingly, adsorption studies were conducted using magnetic pumice and pumice-polyacrylamide composites to obtain adsorption isotherms. Desorption process was optimized for the composites and after recovery process by desorption, removal of cerium by adsorption and sequential desopriton was investigated too. The results showed that cerium was removed at the highest rate (>95%) by adsorption while desorption could be achieved at around 70%. After recycling and reuse the composites the adsorption, in particular desorption efficiency decreased below 40% for polyamide hydrogel after 3. recycling.