RACHNA BHATERIA AND RENU DHAKA
Department of Environmental Sciences, Maharshi Dayanand University, Rohtak-124 001 (Haryana), India
*(e-mail : renu280588@gmail.com); Mobile : 8929895870
(Received : July 22, 2018; Accepted : September 20, 2018)
ABSTRACT
The thrust of the present research is the removal of lead (Pb2+) and cadmium (Cd2+) using waste fungal dead biomass of Aspergillus niger, isolated from electroplating industry. Optimum conditions of process parameters i. e. pH, temperature, initial ion concentration, contact time and biomass dosage were achieved. The kinetic analysis revealed that the biosorption process for Pb2+ and Cd2+ metal ions removal followed the first-order reaction kinetics. The adsorption isotherm can be simulated by Langmuir model, which gave a correlation coefficient equal to 0.99 and 0.97, respectively, for Pb2+ and Cd2+.
The thermodynamics constants ∆G°, ∆H° and ∆S° of the adsorption process showed that biosorption of Pb2+ and Cd2+ metal ions on A. niger were exothermic and spontaneous. This research demonstrated that dead biomass of A. niger was a potential biosorbent for the removal of Pb2+ and Cd2+ ions from aqueous solution.
Key words : Aspergillus niger, biosorption, isotherm models, kinetics, thermodynamics