Adsorption of Cu (II) and Ni (II) Ions from Solution onto Calcium Alginate Beads

Abstract

The objective of this study was to investigate the biosorption of Cu (II) and Ni (II) ions from aqueous solution by calcium alginate beads. The effects of solution pH, contact time and initial metal ion concentration were evaluated. The results showed that maximum Cu (II) removal (93.10%) occurred at pH of 9.0, contact time of 120 minutes and initial ion concentration of 10 mg/L while that of Ni (II) was 94.6%, which was achieved at pH of 8.0, contact time of 120 minutes and initial ion concentration of 10 mg/L. The equilibrium data fitted well to the Langmuir Isotherm indicating that the process is a monolayer adsorption. The coefficients of determination, R2, values for the Langmuir Isotherm were 0.9799 and 0.9822 respectively for Cu (II) and Ni (II) ions. The values of the maximum biosorption capacity, Qo, were 10.79 and 6.25 mgg-1 respectively. The kinetic data also revealed that the sorption process could best be described by the pseudo – second order kinetic model. The R2 values for the pseudo – second order kinetic plots for Cu (II) and Ni (II) were 0.9988 and 0.9969 respectively. These values were higher than those for the pseudo – first order plots. The values of the biosorption capacity qe obtained from the pseudo – second order plots were very close to the experimental values of qe indicating that the biosorption process follows the second order kinetics. This study has therefore shown that calcium alginate beads can be used for the removal of Cu (II) and Ni (II) ions from wastewaters.

Keywords: Keywords: Adsorption, Calcium alginate, Isotherm, Langmuir, Pseudo- first order, Pseudo-second order