Mechanochemical Preparation of Mineral Based Adsorbent and Its Effective Purification Ability for Wastewater

With the economic development, environmental pollution is getting worse in many developing countries including China. Traditional processing as CaO neutralization of acidic solutions is still a burden to many local governments of China and development of new process with lower cost is highly required. Mining exploitation produces large amounts of tailings in which industrial minerals such as carbonates, silicates and others have been left without proper utilization. Based on the intensive investigations in the field of mechanochemistry, we propose to use these mineral samples to deal with the purification of heavy metal polluted water by enhancing their reactivity through mechanochemical activation. The industrial minerals such as silicates (serpentine and kaolinite), carbonates (calcite) have been studied for the purposes on removal of contaminants from solution. In addition, the synergistic effects from mixtures of calcite with other material have been investigated to give their excellent adsorbent performance for purification of the wastewater. This review summarizes the recent progresses for mechanochemical preparation of mineral based adsorbent and its effective purification ability for toxic matter-containing wastewater.