Cadmium adsorption by thermal-activated sepiolite: Application to in-situ remediation of artificially contaminated soil

Soils contamination with Cd result in detriment to the environmental quality. In-situ immobilization methods by applying clay minerals have been gaining prominence. The effects on sepiolite of thermal activation at different temperatures (300-750 °C), for removing Cd from aqueous solutions were evaluated, in order to consider their further application for soil remediation. The influence of activation temperature was investigated using XRD, SEM, and N₂ adsorption-desorption measurements. The S-600 exhibited the maximum adsorption capacity (21.28 mg/g), despite its lower SSA, and Langmuir model described the adsorption isotherms better than the Freundlich equation. TCLP was used to quantify the remediation effects of thermal-activated sepiolite on simulated soils artificially polluted with Cd. The results indicated that the mobility of Cd in soil was effectively reduced after treating with thermal-activated sepiolite and the use of S-600 was the most efficient, reducing the TCLP-Cd by approximately 73% compared with the control test. The main remediation mechanism was considered as the cation exchange of Cd by Mg at the edges of octahedral sheet. This study showed that thermal-activated sepiolite could be promising amendments for remediation of Cd-contaminated soil.