Influence of surfactant entrapment to dried alginate beads on sorption and removal of Cu2+ ions

The removal of heavy metals has been investigated widely in recent years due to their potential health risk to human beings. In this study, the removals of copper from aqueous phase by alginate and SDBS entrapped alginate was investigated. First, a series of equilibrium sorption experiments were conducted at different initial pH values. Both equilibrium copper concentration and final pH values were observed. Then, a series of kinetic experiments were conducted and a second order rate relationship was fit to the experimental data. Equilibrium sorption experiments showed that the sorption of Cu+2 ions by 2% of SDBS entrapped alginate beads were greater than the plain and 0.5% of SDBS entrapped alginate beads. More H+ ion exchange occurred with the 2% of SDBS entrapped alginate beads, which was attributed to the increased number of the exchange sites on the alginate due to the sorption of surfactant to the beads. Kinetic sorption experiments showed that the equilibrium was reached faster for 2% of SDBS entrapped alginate beads. Results were successfully represented using second order kinetic model. Both equilibrium and kinetic experiments showed that the sorption of Cu+2 ions increased as the pH of the aqueous solution increased.