REMOVAL OF DIVALENT CADMIUM IONS FROM AQUEOUS SOLUTION USING LANTANA CAMARA LEAVES BIOCARBON

The objective of this study is to investigate the removal of divalent cadmium ions from an aqueous solution using Lantana camara leaves biocarbon (LCBC). Batch experiments are conducted to test the effects of various parameters such as pH, initial metal ion concentration, amount of biocarbon, and contact time on the cadmium removal process at room temperature, which allows establishing as the optimum conditions a pH value of 4.0 and 2.5g/100 mL of biocarbon dose at the equilibrium time of 180 min. The maximum percentage removal of cadmium is 93.30%. Langmuir and Freundlich adsorption isotherms are used to verify the adsorption parameters, and the experimental data is well fitted to the Langmuir model. Analysis of the biosorption kinetics shows that the pseudo-second-order model is well fitted for Cd (II) ions removal. The correlation coefficient (r2) for the second-order model is 0.9848. The results reveal LCBC as an efficient, low cost, and harmless to environment adsorbent for the removal of Cd (II) ions in the biosorption process.