Cu2+ Removal from Aqueous Solutions with a Cuban Volcanic Glass Mineral

A natural Cuban mineral from Sama Arriba mine (SAN) was used as an adsorbent for Cu2+ removal from aqueous solutions. SAN material was characterized by a variety of experimental techniques in order to know the chemical and phase composition as well as its textural properties. Characterization results indicated that the main phase present was calcite CaCO3 that is partially transformed into malachite during Cu2+ adsorption process. Moreover, the textural properties indicated that the mineral presented some porosity mainly of macroporous nature. The experimental adsorption isotherms of Cu2+ ions were performed in batchtype adsorption systems and the experimental data linearized considering the Langmuir model with a very good correlation. The SAN capacity to remove Cu2+ from water solutions was higher than the data reported in the literature for other materials