Removal Of Copper Ion From Aqueous Solutions Using Chitosan Modified

Abstract

Actually, water pollution by heavy metals has become one of the most important environmental problems. The presence of these toxic metals in the environment can be harmful to humans and living species even at low concentration .The removal of heavy metals from wastewater is significant in the protection of the environment.

In this study, natural clay modified with chitosan, was evaluated for removal of heavy metal ions such as Cu (II) from aqueous solutions. The composite (modified natural clay with chitosan ) was characterized with Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) , X-R-ray diffraction (XRD), and X-ray fluorescence analysis. The influences of the analytical parameters (contact time ,initial metal ion concentration, solution pH , and temperature )were  investigated in order to estimate their impact on adsorption process. The experiment's results show that maximum adsorption capacity occurred at pH=5.The adsorption yield of Cu (II) increased from 15 to 90 % when the material dosage was increased from 0.05 to 0.5 g/l .  Kinetic data were tested using pseudo-first-order and pseudo –second order kinetic models. The best fit was obtained with the pseudo –second order kinetic model. The adsorption maximum metal increases with the increase of initial concentration .Equilibrium  data  were  correlated to Languimir, Freundlich isotherm models .It was best correlated with the Langmuir model. The thermodynamic data showed the adsorption of Cu(II)  on this material was exothermic. From this study , it can be concluded that this clay modified with chitosan is an efficacious material  for heavy metal removal from wastewater.