Abstract—An uptake of silver and cadmium from aqueous solutions by ion exchange on functionalized large pore mesoporous silica has been studied. Mesoporous silica with large pore (about 6nm) was synthesized by condensation of siliceous solution using nonionic oligomeric polyethylene glycol block copolymer (P123) as surfactant in acidic medium and was functionalized by 3-mercaptopropyltrimetoxysilane (MPTMS) on surface of silica for good selectivity and high adsorption capacity. The result of nitrogen gas adsorption (BET) and transition electron microscopy (TEM) show that silica adsorbate have ordered mesoporous structure with uniform pore size distribution. 29Si MAS NMR, TG and FT-IR confirm the functionalization of MPTMS on the surface of mesoporous silica. The removal efficiency of metal in various concentration of metal cations in aqueous solution was investigated and it is determined that in various concentration range, adsorption amount of metal cations on mesoporous silica match to Freundlich and Henry adsorption isotherm data which are used for calculation of ion exchange parameter.

Index Terms—Silver, adsorption, mesoporous, thiol.

Jayhyun Park is with the R&D Team, Institute of Mine Reclamation Corporation, Coal Center, 30 Chungjin-dong, Jongno-gu, Seoul 110-727, Republic of Korea (e-mail: jayhp@mireco.or.kr).
Hyunjung Kim is with Department of Mineral Resources and Energy Engineering, Chonbuk National University, 664-14 Duckjin-Dong 1Ga, Duckjin-Gu, Jeonju, Jeonbuk 561-756, Republic of Korea (e-mail: kshjkim@jbnu.ac.kr, corresponding author).
Jaikoo Park is with the Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Engineering, Hanyang University, #17 Heangdang-dong, Seongdong-gu, Seoul 133-791, Republic of Korea (e-mail: jkpark@hanyang.ac.kr, corresponding author).

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Cite: Jayhyun Park, Hyunjung Kim, and Jaikoo Park, "Characteristics of Thiol-Functionalized Mesoporous Silica and its Application to Silver and Cadmium Ion Removal," International Journal of Environmental Science and Development vol. 3, no. 2, pp. 81-85, 2012.