Removal of Cd(II), Cu(II), and Pb(II) by adsorption onto natural clay: a kinetic and thermodynamic study.

In this work, we study the elimination of three bivalent metal ions (Cd, Cu, and Pb) by adsorption onto natural illitic clay (AM) collected from Marrakech region in Morocco. The characterization of the adsorbent was carried out by X-ray fluorescence, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and X-ray diffraction. The influence of physicochemical parameters on the clay adsorption capacity for ions Cd, Cu, and Pb, namely the adsorbent dose, the contact time, the initial pH imposed on the aqueous solution, the initial concentration of the metal solution and the temperature, was studied.