Adsorption studies on Parthenium hysterophorous weed: Removal and recovery of Cd(II) from wastewater

The efficiency of parthenium weed as an adsorbent for removing Cd(II) from water has been studied. Parthenium is found to exhibit substantial adsorption capacity over a wide range of initial Cd(II) ions concentration. Effect of time, temperature, pH and concentration on the adsorption of Cd(II) was investigated by batch process. Pseudo-first-order and Pseudo-second-order models were evaluated. The kinetics data for the adsorption process obeyed second-order rate equation. The equilibrium data could be described well by the Langmuir and Freundlich isotherms. Thermodynamic parameters such as ΔH°, ΔS° and ΔG° were calculated. The adsorption process was found to be endothermic and spontaneous. The maximum adsorption of Cd(II) ions (99.7%) in the pH range 3–4 indicated that material could be effectively utilized for the removal of Cd(II) ions from wastewater. The desorption studies showed 82% recovery of Cd(II) when 0.1 M HCl solution was used as effluent.