Khosro Mohammadi

The removal of heavy metal ions and hardness is one of the major concerns about groundwater pollution. Among the range of materials used for water treatment and purification, zeolites have been widely employed due to their excellent ion-exchange and adsorption properties which are attributed to their mesoporosity and three-dimensional porous nature at the molecular scale[1-3]. Zeolite-4A was synthesized through a hydrothermal process using plant fibers as source of silica (fig.1) and its physicochemical properties was characterized by XRD, SEM, and IR. The results indicate that zeolite-4A can reduce the concentration of heavy metals such as Pb2+, Zn2+, Cd2+ and Ni2+ that are known toxic pollutants normally present in the variety of industrial wastewaters by more than 90% under optimal pH, time and temperature conditions. In addition, the structures remained stable with a repeatable performance after several water treatment cycles