Kinetics and Equilibrium Studies on the Biosorption of Cu(II) and Cd(II) Ions from Aqueous Solution with Abutilon Indicum Bark Powder

Abutilon indicum bark (AIB) powder as an adsorbent has been developed and studied its application in the removal of Cu(II) and Cd(II) metal ions from aqueous medium. The biosorbent was characterised by using FT-IR spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction spectroscopy (XRD) and Scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The effect of parameters that influence the sorption includes solution pH, biosorbent dose; contact time and initial concentration of metal ion solution were investigated. Maximum sorption was observed at pH 6.0 for Cu(II) and pH 5.0 for Cd(II). The functional groups such as -OH, -COOH, -C=O were responsible for the sorption of Cu(II) and Cd(II) by the sorbent. Under optimal conditions maximum sorption capacity for Cu(II) was 41.02 mg g-1and for Cd(II) was 37.39 mg g-1. The biosorption data obtained were well described by the pseudo second order kinetics and the Langmuir isotherm model. Desorption and recovery was carried out by dil. HCl solution by changing its concentration from 0.01-0.25 N.