Abstract
The contamination soils and aquatic bodies by industrial effluents rich in heavy metals have received much attention in the last decades. Although many heavy metals are essential in small amounts for the correct progress of biological cycles, most of the exert toxic effects at concentrations encountered in polluted environments. For these reasons, in recent years many researchers studied the behaviour of synthetic adsorbent materials having high adsorption capacity for the removal of heavy metals from various effluents. Since copper is an essential metal in a number of enzymes for all forms of life, problems arise when it is deficient or in excess. Excess copper accumulates in the liver, brain, skin, pancreas and myocardium.
The present study involves an investigation of synthetic zeolite adsorbent, 4A for the removal of copper from aqueous solutions. The effects of pH and temperature on the adsorption procces were examined. The optimum pH for adsorption was found to be 8. The rate of copper adsorption by synthetic zeolite was rapid in the first minute of the reaction time. Pseudo second order model best described the reaction rate. Batch adsorption experiments conducted at room temperature (25 °C) showed that the adsorption pattern followed the Langmiur and Freundlich isotherm models. The maximum removal of copper obtained from batch studies was 99.99 %. The concentration of metal ions were measured by atomic absorption spectroscopy (AAS). Overall, the results showed that synthetic zeolite could be considered as a potential adsorbent for copper removal from aqueous solutions.
