Abstract
Copper (Cu) and silver (Ag) have toxic effects on the environment at elevated concentrations, and thus, the effective removal of these elements from aqueous media is of great importance. This paper describes a study of the sorption properties of biochars in aqueous solutions relative to Cu and Ag. The biochars used in the experiment were produced through pyrolysis of sunflower husks (BC1), a mixture of sunflower husks and rapeseed pomace (BC2) and wood waste (BC3) at 600 °C. BC2 exhibited the highest specific surface area, value of surface charge and content of functional groups of the three biochars. The pseudo-second-order model and IPD model best described adsorption kinetics, and the Langmuir-Freundlich model accounted for the adsorption data. BC2 had the highest adsorption capacity and was conductive to the fastest rate of adsorption, and this biochar thus enabled the removal of a largest quantity of heavy metals from aqueous media. In the BC2 trial, the rate of Ag sorption was approximately 1.2 times faster than that of Cu, and the Ag adsorption amount was about 34.3 times greater than that observed for Cu.
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