Removal of Pb(II) from aqueous solution by seed powder of Prosopis juliflora DC.

Biosorption potential of Prosopis juliflora seed powder (PJSP) for Pb(II) from aqueous solution was investigated. The effects of pH, contact time and different metal concentrations were studied in batch experiments. The maximum uptake of metal ions was obtained at pH 6.0. Adsorption equilibrium was established at 360 min. The pseudo-first-order and pseudo-second-order kinetic models were applied to study the kinetics of the biosorption processes. The pseudo-second-order kinetic model provided the best correlation (R(2)=0.9992) of the experimental data compared to the pseudo-first-order kinetic model. The maximum Pb(II) adsorbed was found to be 40.322 mg/g and it was found that the biosorption of Pb(II) on PJSP has correlated well (R(2)=0.9719) with the Langmuir equation compared to Freundlich isotherm equation (R(2)=0.9282) in the concentration range studied. Negative values of DeltaG indicated that the adsorption process was spontaneous and exothermic in nature. The FTIR study revealed the presence of various functional groups which are responsible for the adsorption process. The overall results show that PJSP can be envisaged as a vibrant, biosorbent for metal cleanup operations.