Turkish Journal of Chemistry
Abstract
A series of batch lab-scale experiments were performed to investigate the performance of dead phosphorylated algal biomass of Spirogyra species for the bioadsorption of Cu$^{+2}$ ions from aqueous solutions. FT-IR and SEM analyses were performed to characterize the phosphorylated and raw algae. The SEM analysis indicated that the phosphorus content increases by about 5 times. The isotherm equilibrium data indicated that phosphorylation enhances the removal of Cu$^{+2}$ from water by about 20%. The experimental isotherms fit well to Langmuir models with $R^{2}$ values close to 0.99. Adsorption kinetic study was conducted to investigate the effect of initial Cu$^{+2}$ concentrations, pH, and adsorbent dose on the loading capacity of algal biomass. The optimum pH for the process was around 6 and the corresponding maximum loading capacity was 65 mg/g. The pseudo second-order kinetics successfully modeled the kinetic results with $R^{2}$ values closed to 0.99. The thermodynamic results indicated that the bioadsorption process is endothermic and spontaneous at initial Cu$^{+2}$ concentrations lower than 100 mg/L. The results were promising and encourage the design of a continuous process using algal biomass to remediate water polluted with heavy metals.
DOI
10.3906/kim-1605-38
Keywords
Copper removal, algae, Spirogyra, adsorption isotherms, bioadsorption, adsorption kinetics, phosphorylation
First Page
190
Last Page
208
Recommended Citation
Al-Qodah, Zakaria; AL-SHANNAG, MOHAMMAD; Amro, Abdulaziz; assirey, Eman; Bob, Mustafa; Bani-Melhem, Khalid; and Alkasrawi, Malek
(2017)
"Impact of surface modification of green algal biomass by phosphorylation on the removal of copper(II) ions from water,"
Turkish Journal of Chemistry: Vol. 41:
No.
2, Article 3.
https://doi.org/10.3906/kim-1605-38
Available at:
https://journals.tubitak.gov.tr/chem/vol41/iss2/3