Fabrication of an Inorganic Nano-Zirconium Tungstovanadate Ion Exchange to be Utilized for Heavy Metal Decontamination

An innovative heteropolyacid salt of ion exchanger, nano-zirconium tungstovanadate has been synthesized under varying conditions using sol–gel technique. The different synthesized ion exchange materials were compared based on both their ion exchange capacity (IEC) and their efficiency in separating lead ions from aqueous streams by conducting batch experiments with a batch factor of 50ml/g. Nano- zirconium tungstovanadate prepared from the reaction of 0.2 M zirconium oxychloride, 0.2M ammonium metavanadate and 0.1 M sodium tungstate in presence of 0.01 M HCl at room temperature was record the highest IEC value that equal to 1.5 mequiv/g. Structural characterization of this most proper ion exchanger was performed with powder X-ray diffraction (XRD), thermogravimetry (TGA), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) equipped with energy dispersive spectrometer (EDS) and with inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry (ICP-OES). The X-ray spectrum of the prepared material suggested that of Zr (IV) tungstovanadate is crystalline in nature with average crystallite size between 19 and 37 nm. The SEM result confirmed that the ion exchanger was produced in nano-scale with average particle diameter equal to 28 nm. Good thermal and chemical stabilities have also been observed for the prepared nano-zirconium tungstovanadate. On the basis of these results, the prepared nano-zirconium tungstovanadate is a promising cation exchanger for lead ion decontamination from the polluted water in view of the fact that lead ion removal rate was recorded up to 99.24 % within 3hours. Keywords: nano-zirconium tungstovanadate; sol-gel technique; equilibrium isotherm; Lead ion separation.