Equilibrium and kinetics studies of Cu(II) ions adsorption on polyamidoamine dendrimer starch

A polyamidoamine dendrimer starch (PSt) was prepared with epichlorohydrin as cross-linking agent and characterized by FTIR and scanning electron microscopy. The adsorption behavior of PSt for Cu(II) ions was then studied. Effects of adsorption time, initial concentration of Cu(II) ions, and temperature on the adsorption of Cu(II) ions by PSt were researched, and the equilibrium, kinetics and thermodynamics of the adsorption process were further investigated. The results showed that PSt can effectively adsorb Cu(II) ions from the solution. The adsorption process can be well described by Langmuir isotherm and Freundlich isotherm, and the maximum adsorption capacities of G1PSt, G2PSt, and G4PSt were 3.0571, 3.4228, and 3.9527 mmol/g, respectively. The adsorption of Cu(II) ions on PSt was endothermic in nature. In addition, the pseudo-first-order and pseudo-second-order kinetic models were applied to test the experimental data. The pseudo-second-order kinetic model provided a better correlation of the experimental data in comparison with the pseudo-first-order model.