European Journal of Biomedical and Pharmaceutical Sciences

COMPARATIVE STUDY OF REMOVAL OF CADMIUM IONS FROM AQUEOUS SOLUTION USING CHINA CLAY AND FLY ASH AS LOW COST ADSORBENTS

Dr. Radhey Shyam and *Dr. Surekha Kannaujia

ABSTRACT

China Clay and Fly Ash adsorbents were screened for their metal uptake capacities for Cd (II) ions, at various initial concentrations of 10, 20, 30 40 and 50 mg/ L at variable contact period of between 30 and 180 minutes and different adsorbent dosages of 0.2 – 1 g/l, pH (1 to 6) using batch adsorption technique. The adsorbents were characterized using standard methods. The amount of adsorbate adsorbed by the developed adsorbents for Cd (II) increased with increase in initial metal concentration, contact time, adsorbent dosage and pH until equilibrium point was reached. At equilibrium, the optimum contact time for this operation was 90 minutes for China Clay and 120 minutes for Fly Ash, effective pH for both adsorbents is 5.5, the equilibrium initial metal concentrations are 45 and 40 mg/l for China clay and Fly ash respectively. The data conformed to Freundlich isotherm with R² ˃ 0.95 for both adsorbents. The surface areas of the China Clay and Fly Ash as determined were 13.52 and 5.77 m²/g. The results obtained from this study indicated a high adsorption ability of the adsorbents for Cd (II) with China clay having better performance.

Keywords: Adsorption, Removal, China clay, Fly ash, Cadmium; characterization.