Biosorption of Metal Ions from Aqueous Solutions

Abstract

Copper biosorption from aqueous solutions by calcium alginate is reported in this paper. The experimental section includes potentiometric titrations of biosorbents, batch equilibrium and kinetic studies of copper biosorption, as well as fixed-bed biosorption experiments. The potentiometric titration results show that the surface charge increases with decreasing pH. The biosorption of copper strongly depends on solution pH; the metal ion binding increases from 0 to 90 percent in pH ranging from 1.5 to 5.0. In addition, a decrease in ionic strength results in an increase of copper ion removal. Kinetic studies indicate that mass transfer plays an important role in the biosorption rate. Furthermore, a fixed-bed biosorption experiment shows that calcium alginate has a significant capacity for copper ion removal. The two-pK Basic Stern model successfully represents the surface charge and equilibrium biosorption experimental data. The calculation results demonstrate that the copper removal may result from the binding of free copper and its hydroxide with surface functional groups of the biosorbents.