Sorption isotherm model of zinc (II) onto thermally treated rice husk

Abstract

Various modifications were used to convert waste materials into heavy metal sorbents. In this study, simple thermal treatment was applied on rice husk and its sorption potential to remove Zn (II) ions from aqueous solution was investigated. Equilibrium sorption data were evaluated with two commonly used isotherms i.e. Langmuir and Freundlich isotherms. Coefficient of determination (R2) of the models were used to determine the best fitted isotherm. The correlation coefficients were 0.9884 and 0.8496 for Langmuir and Freundlich isotherms, respectively, showing that the sorption was better described by Langmuir isotherm. In addition, the sorption process is found to be favourable as indicated by the separation factor (RL) value between 0 and 1. The potential of thermally treated rice husk as a sorbent for the removal of Zn (II) ions from aqueous solution is recognised.