Iranian Journal of Materials Science and Engineering

In this study, the adsorption of hexavalent chromium and zinc ions from the solution is investigated by raw red mud and mechanical-chemical activated red mud along with the possibility of selective reclamation of these ions from the solution. The mechanical-chemical activation of red mud was done by employing high-energy milling and subsequent acid treatment with HNO₃. Raw red mud (RRM) and mechanical-chemical activated red mud (MCARM) adsorbents were characterized with Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), X-ray fluorescence (XRF), X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscope (SEM), and Brunauer–Emmett–Teller (BET) methods. In order to determine the suitable adsorption conditions, effects of pH of the solution, amount of adsorption, temperature, and time of adsorption were investigated. It was found that the optimum pH for the adsorption of hexavalent chromium and zinc ions by MCARM adsorbent was 2 and 6, respectively. According to these pH values, MCARM had the ability to separately adsorb more than 95 and 79% of hexavalent chromium and zinc ions from the solution, respectively. Experimental results were in good agreement with Langmuir and Freundlich isotherms. By considering the kinetic models of adsorption, the kinetics of the adsorption of both ions followed the pseudo-second-order reaction model. It was also determined that almost 25.8 and 61.8% of the hexavalent chromium and zinc ions adsorbed in MCARM could be recovered