Pollution Research Paper

Vol 39, Issue 2, 2020; Page No.(287-291 )

REMOVAL OF COPPER (II) FROM AQUEOUS SOLUTION USING CHEMICALLY ACTIVATED BANANA PEELS AS AN ADSORBENT

VIKAL GUPTA, SHIVANGI DAVE AND NEHA PARIHAR

Abstract

The use of chemically activated banana peels as an adsorbent for removal of copper ions from aqueous solution has been investigated. The dried banana peels were treated with 0.5 N HNO3 solutions. Batch experiments have been conducted at different concentration to evaluate the maximum adsorption capacity of banana peels. The influence of pH, contact time, adsorbent dose and particle size was investigated at room temperature. The adsorption data were fully fitted with the Langmuir and Freundlich isotherm and followed a pseudo second order kinetic model. Adsorption is exothermic and spontaneous according to thermodynamic study. This study shows that chemically activated banana peels can be used as effective adsorbent because it has great potential to remove the copper ion. Optimum removal for Cu+2 was observed at a pH of 5.