KINETIC STUDY FOR THE REMOVAL OF COPPER IONS BY FLY ASH/NaOH ADSORBENT

The adsorption study of copper ions from aqueous solution using fly ash as a feed material was investigated. The proposed adsorbent was synthesized through the treatment of fly ash with NaOH at 150 degrees C. 72 hrs. The different parameters, such as: pH. dose of adsorbent, initial copper concentration, and contact time were examined. The adsorbent was characterized by SEM, EDX. XRD, FTIR, BET surface area, and thermal analysis. The copper adsorption process is very fast, a removal efficiency of 99% being reached in approx. 25 min. Three adsorption kinetic models presented in this paper: Pseudo first order. Pseudo second order, and Intraparticle difficsion model for describing the data were compared. The best model that described the kinetic data was the Pseudo second order kinetic model, Type 1. This research confirmed that the adsorbent prepared from fly ash, can be used successfully to remove copper ions from aqueous solution. The material prepared presents a high adsorption capacity for copper ions: 28.16 mg/g. 43.91 mg/g, and 65.15 mg/g for an initial copper concentration of 300 mg/L, 500 mg/L. and 700 mg/L. [GRAPHICS] .