ADSORPTION OF NICKEL (II) IONS FROM SOLUTION USING SAWDUST AND MODIFIED SAWDUST

Abstract

By varying adsorbate concentration, temperature, contact time, pH, and adsorbent weight, the capacity of non-modified (NM) and modified (M) sawdust adsorbents to adsorb Ni²⁺ ions were studied in this work. The adsorption of Ni (II) ions rose as the adsorbent weight increased but reduced as the adsorbate concentration increased. Adsorption was greatest at pH 6, with the NM and M adsorbents removing 95.09 and 96.95% of Ni²⁺ ions, respectively. The highly dependent nature of the percent removal on operational variables was established by employing Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) as well as the Bonferroni-Holm Posthoc statistical test relationship significance. It was discovered that the NM and M sawdust are adequate adsorbents in removing Ni²⁺ cations from its solution. Freundlich, Langmuir, Temkin and Dubinin Raduschkevich (DR) isotherms were applied to match the sorption data. The adsorption of the two biosorbents was best characterized by the Freundlich isotherm model. Chemisorption was suspected based on the energy values obtained from the Temkin and DR isotherms. The second order kinetics best fit both the NM and M adsorption activities. The ability to absorb Ni (II) ions is impressive.