Introduction

Materials and method

Results and discussion

Conclusion

References

Abstract

Adsorption is one of the most commonly used methods for the wastewaters treatment. In this work, we studied the impact of experimental conditions on the adsorption of heavy metals M(II) (M=Cd, Ni, Cu, Pb and Zn) in batch system using chitin obtained from crab shells. This biomaterial is selected because of its low cost, availability and efciency. The M(II) adsorption was found to be dependent on the initial pH, contact time, initial concentration of M(II) and biomass dose. The kinetic models of Elovich, pseudo-frst-order and pseudo-second-order kinetic models were successfully applied, providing the best ftting of the experimental data. The Langmuir, Freundlich, Temkin and Dubinin–Radushkevich isotherms and the thermodynamic parameters were also discussed. The adsorption capacity peaks at: 50, 47.61, 43.4, 40 and 38.46 (mg L−۱) for Pb(II), Cu(II),Ni(II), Cd(II) and Zn(II), respectively. The negative free energy (∆G°) and positive enthalpy (∆H°) indicated spontaneous and endothermic adsorption.

Introduction

The natural environment is constantly contaminated by various pollutants coming from industrial sectors, which in turn showed a considerable change. Toxic metals are widespread and hazardous and afect the environment with a negative impact on the ecosystem, causing dangerous diseases to both animals and humans. Among toxic metals, one can cite Cd, Hg, Pb, As, Cr and Cu (Salem et al. 2012) which must be removed before discharge to the aquatic environment. Unlike organic pollutants, heavy metals are refractory and cannot be degraded and accumulate in living organisms (Ali and Ateeg 2015). The elimination of metals has been the subject of several works using diferent techniques like ion electrodialysis (Esalah et al. 2000), sedimentation (Gupta et al. 2001), ion exchange (Da̧browski et al. 2004; Kang et al. 2008), biological operations (Rashid et al. 2014), coagulation/focculation (Yue et al. 2009), nanofltration (Hafane et al. 2000), solid-phase extraction (Khezami and Capart 2005), adsorption (Abolhasani and Behbahani 2015; Behbahani et al. 2014) and electrokinetic remediation (Sawada et al. 2004). However, all these techniques sufer from high costs of capital and operations as well as the elimination of metallic sludge (Malairajan 2011). On the other hand, the adsorption has become advantageous for removing toxic metals because of its environmentally friendly characteristic, efciency and low cost. In this regard, many marine wastes were used as adsorbents for both inorganic and organic pollutants (Copat et al. 2012; Izquierdo et al. 2014; Samiey and Ashoori 2012; Vilar et al. 2008).