Adsorption of Copper (II) Ions from Aqueous Solution onto Activated Carbon Prepared from Cane Papyrus

The present study evaluates the suitability of activated carbon, prepared from Cane Papyrus, a plant that grows naturally and can be found quite easily, which serves as a biological sorbent for removal of Cu2+ ions from aqueous solutions. Fourier transform infra-red analysis for the activated carbon, prepared from Cane Papyrus confirms the presence of amino (–NH), carbonyl (–C=O), and hydroxyl (–OH) functional groups with Bath mode getting used to investigate the effects of the following parameters: adsorbent dosage (among the rates of 10, 20, and 30 g/L), pH values, Cu2+ initial concentration, and contact time. Results reveal higher efficiency (98%) of powdered adsorbent for removal of Cu2+ ions, which is found at pH=6 with 30 g/L activated carbon, prepared from Cane Papyrus, for a duration of 2 hours. The Freundlich isotherm model with linearized coefficient of 0.982 describes the adsorption process more suitably than the langmuir model, in which this rate equals to 0.899. Pseudo-second order kinetic equation best describes the kinetics of the reaction. Furthermore, it has been found that 0.5M HCl is a better desorbing agent than either 0.5 M NaOH or de-ionized water. The experimental data, obtained, demonstrate that the activated carbon prepared from Cane Papyrus can be used as a suitable adsorbent for Copper(II) ion removal from aqueous solutions.