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Equilibrium and kinetic studies on biosorption of zinc onto Terminalia catappa leaf powder

N.Rakesh, P.Kalpana, P.Rohini Kumar, L.N.Rao, T.V.R.Naidu, M.Venkateswara Rao

In the present investigation, the biosorption is carried out to test the suitability of abundantly available plant based material Terminalia Catappa L. Leaf powder as an adsorbent for removal of zinc ions from aqueous solution. The equilibrium studies are systematically carried out in a batch process, covering various process parameters that include contact time, adsorbent size and dosage, initial zinc ion concentration and pH of the aqueous solution. It is observed that there is a significant increase in percentage removal of zinc ions as pH increases from2 to 6 and attain maximumwhen pH is 6. The contact time is to be 10minutes. The Langmuir isothermismore suitable for biosorption followed by Temkin and Freundlich isotherms. The biosorption of zinc ions follows second order kinetic model having a correlation coefficient of 0.9986.