Adsorption of copper (II) ions from aqueous solution by earleaf acaoa

• Main Author: Lim, Ching Yun
• Format: Academic Exercise
• Language: English
• Published: 2015
• Subjects: GE Environmental Sciences
• Online Access: https://eprints.ums.edu.my/id/eprint/17392/1/Adsorption_of_copper_%28II%29_ions_from_aqueous_solution_by_earleaf_acaoa.pdf; https://eprints.ums.edu.my/id/eprint/17392/

Heavy metal pollution has become an issue of global concern due to the toxicity which leads to health hazards in human and animals. In this study, unmodified Earleaf acacia (EA) was chosen as the adsorbent on the adsorption of Cu(II) ions. EA was collected from Universiti Malaysia Sabah as it helps to reduce the daily plant wastes generated. The characterisation of adsorbent was conducted by studying its particle size distribution, porosimetry and elemental content of EA. It is concluded that the particle size distribution of EA comprised of mostly 1.000 < Ø ≤2.000 mm with uniformity coefficient (Cu) of two. The carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen and sulphur contents obtained were 51.39 %, 5.43 %, 3.18 % and 0.34% respectively. The BET surface area and average BET adsorption average pore width of EA obtained were 4.1942 m²/g and 44.203 Å respectively. Thus, EA was categorised as a mesoporous adsorbent. The equilibrium adsorption studies including particle size, contact time, agitation speed, dosage and initial concentration were carried out in batch mode. Better fitting of experimental data with Langmuir isotherm model indicated that EA was subjected to monolayer adsorption with the maximum adsorption capacity (Qmax) of 12.3152 mg/g. The adsorption kinetics of earleaf acacia was studied with external mass transfer diffusion, intraparticle diffusion, pseudo-first-order and pseudo-second-order models. The studies showed that the mechanism of the adsorption of Cu(II) ions by EA was chemisorption and controlled by boundary layer diffusion.