Comparative studies on the removal of copper (II) by Ulva fasciata activated carbon and commercially activated carbon

Abstract

In this work, the efficiency of Ulva fasciata sp. activated carbons (CCUC, SCUC and SSUC) and commercially activated carbon (CAC) were studied for the removal of Cu (II) ions from synthetic wastewater. Batch adsorption experiments were carried out as a function of pH, contact time, initial copper concentration and adsorbent dose. The percentage adsorption of copper by CCUC, SSUC, SCUC and CAC are 88.47%, 97.53%, 95.78% and 77.42% respectively. Adsorption data were fitted with the Langmuir, Freundlich and Temkin models. Two kinetic models pseudo first order and the pseudo second order were selected to interpret the adsorption data.