LAUSR

The present study describes the effective performance of MnCo2O4/NaY zeolite (MnCo2O4: 18.7 wt%) as a novel nanocomposite adsorbent for the removal of Sr2+ ions from drinking water of Tehran city. The reactions were all carried out under pre-organized optimized conditions and the subsequent monitoring was accomplished via the ultra-low level liquid scintillation counting (LSC) analysis. The characterization study of samples was carried out using scanning electron microscope, energy dispersive X-ray, atomic force microscope, powder X-ray diffraction and Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy. Multiple experimental conditions including adsorbent dose, pH, adsorbent type and contact time were applied for the adsorption-removal process of Sr2+ ions by the MnCo2O4/NaY nanocomposite adsorbent. The results from LSC concluded that Sr2+ was operatively adsorbed on the nanocomposite surface active sites after 180 min at room temperature with a yield more than 95%. The reaction kinetic data was precisely studied by employing pseudo-first and second-orders, intra particle diffusion and Elovich models. The adsorption kinetics was found to fit the pseudo-second-order model. Moreover, the investigation of the thermodynamic parameters such as $$\varDelta {\text{G}}^{0}$$ΔG0, $$\varDelta {\text{H}}^{0}$$ΔH0and $$\varDelta {\text{S}}^{0}$$ΔS0, specified that adsorption procedure of Sr2+ was spontaneous and expresses a physic-chemical adsorption characteristics and exothermic feature of the adsorption reaction. The sequential experiments of reproducibility for the synthesized nanocomposite against Sr2+ ions showed removal efficiency of more than 91% for all those cycles.