Adsorption Behavior of Waste Leaves of Quercus Leucotrichophora for the Removal of Ni2+ and Cd2+ Ions from Waste Water

Abstract

Recently, the heavy metals are known for their toxicity to living organisms and natural environment. In the present study, we have removed Ni2+ and Cd2+ ions from synthetically prepared waste water under batch experiments using the waste leaves of Quercus leucotrichophora as low cost adsorbents. The adsorbent was characterized by FTIR and FESEM methods and the batch experiments included contact time, pH, dosage, temperature and concentration. The adsorption of metal ions was found maximum at the optimized conditions such as contact time 60 min, dosage 1 g, pH 5 and lower metal ion concentrations. The percentage adsorption at contact time 60 min, dosage 1 g and pH 6 was found 50.2, 51.0 and 74.0% for nickel and 38.8, 29.9 and 70.1% for cadmium. The adsorption data under selected batch system have been tested with Langmuir, Freundlich isotherm models, pseudo first order and pseudo second order kinetic models. Langmuir isotherm model and pseudo first order kinetic model were best fitted to adsorption of nickel and cadmium onto waste leaf powder of Quercus leucotrichophora. keywords: Heavy metals, Analytical methods, Batch system, Isotherms, Kinetics.