Adsorption of Lead on Cucumber Peel

The competency of cucumber peel (CP) was explored for adsorption of lead. Optimum adsorption occurred at pH 5.0 and at incubation temperature of 30 degrees C. The process of adsorption was quite fast to be completed within a time frame of 60 min obeying pseudo second order rate kinetics. 1.0 g sorbent was capable enough to adsorb 133.60 mg lead (q(max)) with Langmuir isotherm model categorically illustrating the adsorption process. The magnitude of hindrance exerted by cadmium in binary system as a consequence of co-ion effect was found to be rather insignificant. Functional group modification study confirmed principal role of carboxyl group in metal binding. The biomass was characterized by different instrumental analyses like TGA, SEM, EDAX, XRD, FTIR and zeta potential measurement which additionally authenticated the sorption phenomenon. Post adsorption elution of the loaded metal was successfully executed using HCl as eluant. (C) 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.