PERFORMANCE OF ACTIVATED CARBON FROM ACALYPHA INDICA (KUPPAIMENI) LEAF AS AN ADSORBENT FOR COPPER (II) IONS

Abstract

The current worldwide environmental problem is the contamination of water by toxic heavy metals. To remove the heavy metals from water sources, waste withered out leaves are used as affordable adsorbents. In this work, activated carbon was derived from the Acalypha indica leaf to remove the toxic Cu (II) ions from the contaminated water. Effect of adsorption parameters like contact time, pH, temperature, adsorbent dose and initial metal ion concentration, were investigated. The optimum conditions were found to be 50 min contact time, pH 6, temperature 50˚C , 0.8g adsorbent dose and initial metal ion concentration of 0.12 M Cu. Acalypha indica leaf derived Activated Carbon (ALAC) has the maximum Cu adsorption capacity of 89.3%. Equilibrium data were well represented by the Freundlich and Langmuir isotherm model for all tested adsorption systems. Due to zero cost and high efficiency Acalypha indica leaf activated carbon could be an easily available and renewable biological adsorbent for the removal of copper from waste water.