ARE POROUS GEOPOLYMERS ALTERNATIVE ADSORBENTS FOR HEAVY METALS REMOVAL? ANALYSIS OF RECENT DISCOVERIES

Abstract

Currently, greater attention has been given to the contamination of water resources by different categories of compounds, as this is an essential resource for life. In this way, the present work carried out a bibliographic study regarding the synthesis of geopolymers (GPs), through different materials and methodologies, with application to the adsorption of heavy metals, addressing the issue of modifications carried out in the synthesis of GPs, in order to obtain the potentiation of its adsorption characteristics. It was found that for the synthesis of GPs there is no standard, that is, a varied number of precursor materials, alkaline activators, curing times and temperatures can be used, with sealed containers or not, and choose different particle sizes for use in the adsorption process. Also, use can be made of pore-creating agents, or modifications performed during the synthesis of materials in order to attribute the desired characteristics to the GPs. The use of GPs as adsorbents with the objective of removing heavy metals, proved to be effective and with application perspectives for various metal ions (Ni, Pb, Cu, Hg, Cd, Cr, Zn, Cs).