Thermodynamic and kinetic studies of cadmium adsorption from aqueous solution onto rice husk

Abstract

The adsorption behavior of rice husk for cadmium ions from aqueous solutions has been investigated as a function of appropriate equilibrium time, adsorbent dose, temperature, adsorbate concentrations and pH in a batch system. Studies showed that the pH of aqueous solutions affected cadmium removal with the result that removal efficiency increased with increasing solution pH. The maximum adsorption was 98.65% at solution pH 6, contact time 60 min and initial concentration of 25 mg/L. The experimental data were analysed by the Langmuir, Freundlich and Temkin models of adsorption. The characteristic parameters for each isotherm and related correlation coefficients have been determined. Thermodynamic parameters such as<img src="/img/revistas/bjce/v27n2/a13text1.jpg">, <img src="/img/revistas/bjce/v27n2/a13text2.jpg"> and <img src="/img/revistas/bjce/v27n2/a13text3.jpg">have also been evaluated and it has been found that the sorption process was feasible, spontaneous and exothermic in nature. The kinetics of the sorption were analysed using the pseudo-first order and pseudo-second order kinetic models. Kinetic parameters, rate constants, equilibrium sorption capacities and related correlation coefficients for each kinetic model were calculated and discussed. It was shown that the adsorption of cadmium could be described by the pseudo-second order equation, suggesting that the adsorption process is presumably a chemisorption. The rice husk investigated in this study showed good potential for the removal of cadmium from aqueous solutions. The goal for this work is to develop inexpensive, highly available, effective metal ion adsorbents from natural waste as alternative to existing commercial adsorbents.