Isothermal and Kinetic Studies of the Adsorption Removal of Pb(II), Cu(II), and Ni(II) Ions from Aqueous Solutions using Modified Chara Sp. Algae

We investigated the individual biosorption removal of lead, copper, and nickel ions from aqueous solutions using Chara sp. algae powder in a batch mode. The impact of several parameters, such as initial concentration of the metal ions, contacting time, sorbent dose, and pH on the removal efficiency, was investigated. The maximum removal efficiency at optimum conditions was found to be 98% for Pb(II) at pH = 4, 90% for Cu(II) at pH = 5, and 80% for Ni(II) at pH = 5. The isotherm study was done under the optimum conditions for each metal by applying the experimental results onto the well-known Freundlich and Langmuir models. The results show that the Langmuir is better in describing the isotherm adsorption of Pb(II) and Ni(II), while the Freundlich is a better fit in the case of Cu(II). Similarly, a kinetic study was performed by using the pseudo-first and second-order equations. Our results show that the pseudo-second-order is better in representing the kinetic adsorption of the three metal ions.