Adsorption of lead (II) ions by activated carbons prepared from marine green algae: equilibrium and kinetics studies

Background Adsorption of lead(II) ions onto activated carbons prepared from the marine green Ulva fasciata sp. (CCUC, SSUC and SCUC) and commercially activated carbon (CAC) was investigated with the variation in the parameters of pH, contact time, lead(II) ions concentration and the adsorbent dose. The Langmuir, Freundlich and Temkin models have been applied. Results Results showed that the adsorption process was better described by the Langmuir model. Adsorption kinetics data obtained for the metal ions sorption were investigated using reversible first order, pseudo-first order, pseudo-second order and intraparticle diffusion model. The maximum adsorption capacities (Q 0 ) were 22.93 mg/g for CCUC, 24.15 mg/g for SSUC, 23.47 mg/g for SSUC and 15.62 mg/g for CAC. Conclusions It was found that the kinetics data fitted well into the pseudo second-order kinetics and SSUC is a superior adsorbent for the removal of Pb(II) ions from aqueous solution.