Adsorptive removal of cadmium(II) ions from aqueous solution by using Red pine Sawdust (Pinus brutia Ten.)

In this study, the potential usage of red pine sawdust (Pinus brutia Ten.), as an effective and low cost adsorbent, in removal of Cd(II) ions which is a toxic heavy metal, from aqueous solutions by adsorption technique has been investigated. The red pine sawdust has been utilized without any physical or chemical pretreatment. After being characterized the red pine sawdust by FTIR, pHpzc and moisture content, the effects of experimental parameters including initial solution pH, contact time, adsorbent amount and initial Cd(II) concentration have been evaluated and also the effects of some salts which present in industrial wastewaters have been investigated. From the obtained results the optimum initial pH was specified as 6.0 and the contact time was 240 minute. In order to clarify the adsorption mechanism different kinetics (pseudo-first order, pseudo-second order and intraparticle diffusion models) and isotherm models (Langmuir, Freundlich, Temkin ve Dubinin Radushkevich) were fitted to experimental data. From the results, it was seen that the adsorption kinetics followed by the pseudo second order model. The maximum adsorption capacity of red pine sawdust was calculated as 11.88 mg/g by using Langmuir isotherm model. The results of this study indicated that the red pine sawdust (Pinus brutia Ten.) can be used as an effective adsorbent in removal of Cd(II) ions from aqueous solutions.