Using pretreated chestnut endothelium to adsorb lead and cadmium ions from water

The nature chestnut endothelium, as waster source from chestnut (Castaneamollissima) has pigment effecting the process of adsorbing heavy metalions, and the decolorized endothelium has low adsorption capacity. In order to raise the adsorption capacity of heavy metal ions, the discolor endothelium was pretreated by acidic formaldehyde, cis-butenedioic acid and irradiation. Thermodynamic and kinetics model was fitted to the adsorption of Pb (II) and Cd(II) ions onto modified chestnut endothelium by cis-butenedioic acid. Three independent variables including pH, adsorption time and contact temperature were selected as affecting factors to Response Surface. The modified experiment results showed adsorption rate of Pb(II) and Cd(II) ions on the chestnut endothelium modified by 0.5 mol/L cis-butenedioic acid was higher than other modified methods. Thermodynamic and kinetics model was fitted with Langmuir and Pseudo-second-order kinetic model, respectively. 59.23 °C of the adsorption temperature, the 5.72 h of adsorption time and the 6.16 of pH are the optimized conditions of the adsorption rate of Pb(2+) on modified chestnut endothelium. 55.93 °C of the adsorption temperature, the 4.43 h of adsorption time and the 6.06 of pH are the optimized adsorption conditions of Cd(2+). Under the optimized condition, the experiment value of the adsorption of Pb(2+) and Cd(2+) was 99.76% and 98.90%, respectively, which are close to the predicted value. The FTIR indicated that C—O, O—H and C—H involved in the adsorption process of Pb(2+) and Cd(2+).