Treatment of industrial wastewater containing copper and lead ions using new carboxymethyl chitosan-activated carbon derivatives

Abstract

New carboxymethyl chitosan-activated carbon derivatives were synthesized and characterized using FTIR, XRD and SEM spectra. The prepared adsorbents were containing different ratios of activated carbon ranged between 5% and 20% relative to the carboxymethyl chitosan. The prepared adsorbents were evaluated as adsorbents for removal of copper and lead ions from industrial wastewater. The efficiency of the removal was increased by increasing the percentage of activated carbon in the adsorbent. The adsorption process of the two metals on the synthesized adsorbents was followed Langmuir adsorption isotherm with correlation coefficients R2 ranged from 0.999 to 1, and follows also the pseudo second order kinetic model. The highest adsorption efficiency was obtained in the alkaline medium using the higher activated carbon content in the adsorbent and was 95.8% for Pb2+ and 95.9% for Cu2+ after 6 h.