Thermodynamic and kinetic models for the removal of copper and cadmium using industrial effluents by mixed adsorbent

Abstract

The potential of Activated Charcoal and bone Charcoal as a low cost material for the removal of copper and cadmium from synthetic metal solution was studied. A number of experiments were performed in order to determine the potential capacity of the adsorbent in terms of thermo Dynamic equilibrium from the batch data. The Positive values of change in Enthalpy show that the process is endothermic in nature for Cd (II) and the negative values of Change in Enthalpy shows that the process is exothermic in nature for Cu (II). The standard Gibb’s free energy values are positive which means that the process is not spontaneous in nature. The negative values of ΔS show that there is decrease in randomness at the solid/solution interface during the adsorption of copper. The study revealed that mixed adsorbent prepared by blending the activated charcoal and bone charcoal in 1: 1 ratio has more potential to act as an adsorbent for the removal of Cu and Cd from aqueous solution. The optimum temperature was found to be 40°C for both the metals. The higher correlation coefficient R2(0.9824) value shown that cadmium ions were well fitted the thermodynamic model comparing copper ions. The batch adsorption studies have been carried out for 2 hrs considering all the 6 parameters by optimizing each of them. The data obtained for optimized parameters were studied through fitting of kinetic models such as Pseudo-first order and Pseudo second order models for both Copper and Cadmium along with Correlation or regression coefficient (R2) values.