Kinetic and thermodynamic investigations of strontium ions retention by natural kaolinite and clinoptilolite minerals

Summary The current study was devoted to the determination of various thermodynamic and kinetic parameters resulting from the fixation of Sr2+by natural samples of kaolinite and clinoptilolite minerals. The sorption process followed pseudo second order kinetics, with faster sorption on kaolinite compared to clinoptilolite, where the uptake is affected by intraparticle diffusion. Freundlich and Dubinin–Radushkevich isotherm models described the data more adequately than Langmuir model, and clinoptilolite showed a higher strontium sorption capacity than kaolinite. Thermodynamically, the activation energy of Sr2+sorption by kaolinite and clinoptilolite were respectively, −8.5 and −18.4 kJ/mol. The sorption process on both minerals was spontaneous and endothermic at all the studied concentrations, with ΔH° being 11.3 and 9.8 kJ/mol, for sorption on kaolinite and clinoptilolite, respectively. The findings of this study were compared with those of an earlier study on the uptake of Cs+by the same minerals.