Abstract:
Clay is one of natural resources which has a the potential to be developed. To optimize
the potential of the clay takes a touch of technology through characterization of clay, so it can be fully utilized. Clay with a high silica level has a negative impact on the adsorption, it can be seen from the silica content of Palas natural clay samples obtained at 66,46%. Therefore, the activation is done using ammonium dihydrogen phosphate (NH4H2PO4) which calcined at 230oC with over 5 hours of fusion method that aims to reduce the amount of silica contained in the clay to increase absorbency. In this study, Si4+ cation contained in the clay was exchanged with cations P that causes excess
positive charge on the clay framework, thus it is potential to be used as adsorbent of
anion exchanger. After activation there is a decline in the amount of silica in sample LP
(56,95%) which suggests that there is substitution between Si atom by atom P. In
addition, the surface area of the clay phosphatation also decreased when compared with the natural clay surface area, is LA (25,39 m2/g) and LP (24,60 m2/g). Based on the results of the determination of the adsorption of the anion nitrite by phosphatation clays with variation of contact time, it showed that the lowest adsorption present at sample LA has adsorption 22,2% and sample LP has adsorption at 12,93% with each of a
contact time 20 minutes.
