Adsorption studies of Cr(III) ions from aqueous solutions by DEHPA impregnated onto Amberlite XAD7 – Factorial design analysis

► Amberlite XAD7 impregnated with DEHPA trough dynamic column impregnation method. ► Use of XAD7–DEHPA as adsorbent material for Cr(III) removal from aqueous solutions. ► Cr(III) adsorption onto XAD7–DEHPA follows the pseudo-second-order rate kinetics. ► The maximum adsorption capacity calculated from Langmuir model was 3.2mg/g. ► The factorial design analysis allowed us to make a first optimization of the process. The present paper investigates the adsorption of Cr(III) ions using the SIR, prepared by impregnation of Amberlite XAD7 with di-(2-ethylhexyl)-phosphoric acid (DEHPA), which has been chosen as an extractant for the purpose of this study. The Amberlite XAD7–DEHPA resin was impregnated with DEHPA and ethylic alcohol as solvent trough dynamic column impregnation method. The influence of different physicochemical parameters (pH, resin dosage, initial concentration of Cr(III) ions, contact time and temperature) upon the adsorption capacity of XAD7–DEHPA, in the Cr(III) ions removal process from aqueous solution, has been investigated. The pH for Cr(III) ions adsorption was found as 3.0 for this material. The results showed that the adsorption equilibrium was reached after 45min. The adsorption process is best described by the pseudo-second order kinetic model. Langmuir adsorption isotherm gave a satisfactory fit of the equilibrium data. The maximum adsorption capacity is ∼3mgCr(III) ions/g SIR. The thermodynamic studies allowed us to determine the thermodynamic parameters ΔG°, ΔH° and ΔS°. In this paper the factorial design of experiments was used to study the performance of the adsorption process.