Removal of ammonium from aqueous solution by ion exchange on natural and modified chabazite.

The ammonium exchange capacity of a natural chabazite was studied in this work. The XRD analysis of the zeolite sample revealed that the main zeolitic phase was chabazite. The textural properties were determined by the N(2)-BET method and the surface morphology and charge were examined using a scanning electron microscope and a zetameter, respectively. The ion exchange equilibrium data were obtained in a batch adsorber and the Langmuir isotherm fitted plausibly well the equilibrium data. The effects of the temperature and pH on the ammonium exchange capacity of chabazite were investigated and the capacity increased augmenting the temperature from 15 to 35 °C and pH from 3 to 6. The natural chabazite was modified by a hydrothermal treatment using NaCl and KCl solutions and it was found that the modification influenced the ammonium exchange capacity of the chabazite. The ammonium capacity of natural chabazite was compared with that of a natural clinoptilolite and it was concluded that the chabazite capacity was 1.43 times higher than that of clinoptilolite.

Characterization of silver nanoparticles synthesized on titanium dioxide fine particles.

Silver nanoparticles with a narrow size distribution were synthesized over the surface of two different commercial TiO(2) particles using a simple aqueous reduction method. The reducing agent used was NaBH(4); different molar ratios TiO(2):Ag were also used. The nanocomposites thus prepared were characterized using transmission electron microscopy (TEM), scanning transmission electron microscopy (STEM), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy-dispersive spectroscopy (EDS), x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), x-ray diffraction (XRD), dynamic light scattering (DLS) and UV-visible (UV-vis) absorption spectroscopy; the antibacterial activity was assessed using the standard microdilution method, determining the minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) according to the National Committee for Clinical Laboratory Standards. From the microscopy studies (TEM and STEM) we observed that the silver nanoparticles are homogeneously distributed over the surface of TiO(2) particles and that the TiO(2):Ag molar ratio plays an important role. We used three different TiO(2)Ag molar ratios and the size of the silver nanoparticles is 10, 20 and 80 nm, respectively. It was found that the antibacterial activity of the nanocomposites increases considerably comparing with separated silver nanoparticles and TiO(2) particles.