Biosorption of lanthanum and cerium from aqueous solutions using tangerine (Citrus reticulata) peel: Equilibrium, kinetic, and thermodynamic studies

Abstract

Biosorption of lanthanum (III) and cerium (III) from aqueous solution by tangerine (Citrus reticulate) peel has been investigated in a batch system as a function of pH, biosorbent dosage, contact time, and temperature. The equilibrium pH was found to severely affect the biosorption performance; pH 5.0 is found to be an optimum pH for favorable biosorption of La (III) and Ce (III). The biosorption of lanthanum and cerium was investigated by the Langmuir, Freundlich and Dubinin-Radushkevich (D-R) isotherm models. Maximum biosorption uptakes, according to the Langmuir model, were obtained as 154.86 and 162.79 (mg/g) for La(III) and Ce(III), respectively. The biosorption kinetic was tested with pseudo-first order and pseudo-second order models. The results showed that the kinetic of biosorption process was described by the pseudo-second order model very well. Thermodynamic parameters including the change of Gibbs free energy (?G?), enthalpy change (?H?) and entropy change (?S?) for both sorption systems were determined at four different temperatures. The results showed that the biosorption of La(III) and Ce(III) on tangerine (C. reticulate) peel is a spontaneous and endothermic process. FTIR analysis demonstrated that carboxyl and hydroxyl groups were involved in the biosorption of the metal ions.