Enhanced Adsorption of Lead (II) Ions from Aqueous Solution by a Chemically Modified Polyurethane

Abstract

Heavy metal pollution is a major threat to living systems due to increase in the industrial development worldwide. In this study, the adsorption of lead (II) ions by chemically modified polyurethane was reported. Polyurethane (PU) was chemically modified by sulphonation and chlorination to obtain sulphonated PU (SPU) and chlorinated PU (CPU). The adsorption parameters such as pH, contact time, adsorbent loading and initial metal ion concentration were optimized in batch experiments for both the adsorbents. Maximum Pb (II) ion adsorption of 90 and 85% was observed for SPU and CPU respectively at optimal conditions. Isotherms results showed that the equilibrium data was fitted with Freundlich isotherm and followed multilayer adsorption mechanism. Adsorption of Pb (II) ions by both SPU and CPU followed pseudo second order kinetics. The outcome of this study showed that chemical modification of PU is effective for efficient removal of Pb (II) ions from effluent.

Keywords

• lead
• isotherm
• chemical modification
• polyurethane, kinetics.