Assessing the Efficiency of Injana Clay for Cadmium Sorption: Implications for Environmental Sustainability

The study aims to assess the effectiveness of Injana Formation clay in removing cadmium from solutions. The clay samples were collected from the Shekhmasuod area east of Ramadi City in the Governorate of Al-Anbar, west of Iraq, from the Injana Formation (Late Miocene). The effect of temperature and time on adsorption was identified through several experiments conducted at 15, 25, 35, and 45 ºC for solutions at eight durations 1, 10, 20, 30, 40, 50, 60, and 70 minutes. The procedure included determining the adsorption efficiency by adding three grams of clay (solid) to 40 ml of cadmium solution (liquid) under the effect of changing, the pH and TDS. The equilibrium state (equilibrium time) at the different temperature degrees is determined as 20 min in most experiments. The equations of Langmuir and Freundlich showed that the capacity of adsorption (Qo) is equal to 0.6224 mg/g, and the constants of Langmuir empirical (KL) is 22.6. The results show that the intensity (n) is equal to 30.03, and the Freundlich isotherm constant (Kf) is equal to 1.5282. The equations of cadmium adsorption are identical with the Langmuir isotherm and Freundlich isotherm models. The efficiency of utilizing clay for removing cadmium from solutions was discussed practical solution to enhance the aquatic environment.