Kinetics and equilibrium studies on biosorption of Pb(II) from aqueous solution by a novel biosorbent: Cyclosorus interruptus

Cyclosorus interruptus (abbreviated as CI thereafter) is a perennial growth and disease resistant plant abundant in China. In this study, CI was used as a biosorbent for the removal of Pb(II) from aqueous solutions. The selective adsorption experiments were conducted and found that the CI has an excellent selective property to Pb (II) adsorption. The Langmuir isotherm model yields a much better fit than that of Freundlich isotherm model in describing Pb(II) adsorption. The biosorption process fitted well to pseudo-second-order kinetics and equilibrium was attained in about 30 min. The activation energy (E-a) of Pb(II) biosorption was determined at 12.79 (kJ mol (1)) which indicated that biosorption may be an activated chemical biosorption. The equilibrium data was analyzed using the Langmuir models. The maximum biosorption capacity of Pb(II) determined according to the Langmuir model was 46.25 mg g (1) at 25 degrees C. The FITR, XRD and SEM were also studied for CI. The results showed that CI was a excellent biosorbent for adsorption of Pb(II) from an aqueous solution. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.