Biosorption of radiostrontium by alginate beads: application of isotherm models and thermodynamic studies

Radioactive strontium is one of the major radioactive contaminant and its contamination is a very serious concern. Therefore, there is a need for economic, effective, non-toxic, readily available and abundant adsorbent or biosorbent to remove strontium from solutions. In this study, biosorption of Sr-85 as a surrogate for Sr-90 onto alginate beads was investigated in a batch system. Alginate beads were prepared from Na-alginate via cross-linking with divalent calcium ions according to the egg box model. The effect of several parameters such as pH, initial strontium concentration, contact time, dosage of alginate beads and temperature were investigated. In order to optimize the design of biosorption system for the removal of strontium, it is important to establish the most appropriate correlation for equilibrium curves. The experimental isotherm data were described by 6 different biosorption isotherm models, namely Langmuir, Freundlich, Dubinin-Radushkevich, Temkin, Flory-Huggins and Brunauer, Emmer and Teller, with constants obtained from linear and non-linear regression methods. The thermodynamic parameters (a dagger HA degrees, a dagger SA degrees and a dagger GA degrees) for strontium biosorption were also determined. The results indicate that these alginate beads have a good potential for the biosorption of strontium from solutions.