Biosorption of Copper (II) Ions from Waste Water Using Chemically Modified Corn Stalk Waste
Samuel Adesina Ojo
Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Sciences, University of Abuja, Abuja, Nigeria.
Victor Ebiekpe *
Department of Pure and Applied Chemistry, Faculty of Natural and Applied Sciences, Veritas University, Abuja, Nigeria.
Chioma Nwakanobi
Capzer Pharmaceuticals, Lake Worth, Florida, USA.
Uchenna Okezie
Department of Pure and Applied Chemistry, Faculty of Natural and Applied Sciences, Veritas University, Abuja, Nigeria.
*Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Abstract
The performance of chemically modified corn stalk waste as a low cost and environmental friendly adsorbent for the removal of copper (ii) ions was examined using batch process. Factors prompting copper removal including initial copper ion concentration (0.2 – 1.0 g/l), adsorbent dose (0.5 – 10.0 g), contact time (30 – 150 min) and pH (2 – 11) at constant temperature of 30 oC were studied. The adsorption process was quite fast and equilibrium was establish before 100 min. Maximum adsorption of 70% for copper (ii) ions was found to occur at pH 8. The equilibrium data obtained were analyzed and the results showed that Langmuir isotherm with R2 value at 0.99 best described the adsorption equilibrium data. The maximum adsorption capacity for the adsorption process calculated from the Langmuir isotherm was found to be 66.2 mg/g. This high value of the adsorption capacity indicated that the corn stalk waste can be used as a potential alternative for the removal of Cu (II) ions from wastewater.
Keywords: Biosorption, adsorbent, copper ions, batch method, corn stalk