Copper (II) Adsorption by Calcium-alginate Shea Butter Cake

Abstract

This study investigated the utilization of modified shea butter cake for the removal of Cu(II) ions from an aqueous solution. Instrumental analysis such as Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), Scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray Diffractometer (XRD) was used for the characterisation of the solid sorbent. A batch equilibrium study was carried out to evaluate the adsorption capacity, and process parameters such as initial metal ion concentration, time, pH, and adsorbent dosage. An optimum pH of 5, an equilibrium time of 30mins and an adsorbent dosage of 40 beads were obtained. The Langmuir and Freundlich isotherms were used to fit the experimental data and values fits the Langmuir more adequately with correlation coefficient unity (1.000) at 10mg/l of initial metal ion concentration. The Kinetic study using the Pseudo-first-order and pseudo-second were used to determine the rate constants and experiments data best fits the pseudo–second-order with calculated amount adsorbed approximately equal to the experimental values. The results indicate that modified shea butter cake could be employed as an adsorbent for the removal of copper (II) ions in an aqueous solution.