Adsorption Studies of Silica Adsorbent Using Rice Husk as a Base Material for Metal Ions Removal from Aqueous Solution

Abstract

This study was carried out to evaluate the efficiency of metal ions removal from aqueous solution using silica adsorbent. Silica was extracted from rice husk using sol-gel method. The silica was modified with 1.0 M of nitric acid. Using batch adsorption technique, the effects of temperature, pH, contact time and adsorbent dosage on adsorption process of Cu (II), Zn (II), Mn (II) and Pb (II) ions were studied using standard solutions of their salts. Percentage removal of the metals ions studied decreased as the temperature was varied between 28°C and 43°C. Percentage removal of metal ions studied showed an increase at different pH varying from 4 to 8 and decreased after the pH 8. The variation of contact time between 2 and 8 hours showed a sharp increase in metals removal from 2 to 6 hours but a slow increase after 6 hours. The percentage removal of metal ions increase as the adsorbent dosage increased between 0.5 g and 2.0 g. The maximum percentage removal of metal ions was found to be 99.48%. The general observed trend of efficiency being Cu>Pb>Zn>Mn. The experimental data was also tested using adsorption isotherm models of Langmuir and Freundlich and Langmuir model was found to be the best fit for the data.