Abstract:
Since heavy metal pollution is a significant aspect
to aquatic ecosystems, the objective of this research work was to
investigate adsorption characteristics of chitosan as an
alternative adsorbent material. In this study, chitosan,
synthesized from locally available shrimp type “penaeus
monodon” was used to observe adsorption characteristics of
cadmium (Cd) and lead (Pb) heavy metals from aqueous solution.
Batch kinetic experiment studies were conducted for changing
initial pH, initial concentration of metal ions, particle size and
degree of deacetylation (DD) of chitosan. Simplified models such
as, pseudo first order, pseudo second order and intra-particle
diffusion models were used to analyze the experimental data. The
result showed that the adsorption capacity strongly depends on
pH and DD. It was clearly seen that higher adsorption of heavy
metals occur at comparatively high pH and high DD.
Equilibrium experimental data were analyzed by using two
different isotherm models namely, Langmuir and Freundlich.
The characteristic parameters for each isotherm and related
correlation coefficients were determined by using mathematical
modeling software. Isotherms show that adsorption process of Cd
and Pb is a heterogeneous process.
