Removal of Copper ion from aqueous solution by tree bark as adsorbent

Tree bark is biomass, used as adsorbent due to abundance and cheaper for removing heavy metal copper ion from aqueous solution that hazardous to environment and living things. Copper is one of the most popular heavy metal used in the industry and discharged into environment through wastewater. Adsorption is one of the alternative methods that widely used to remove heavy metal from wastewater. Study on the potential of tree bark as adsorbent for the removal of copper ion from aqueous solution was conducted. Batch adsorption was studied for the optimisation of each parameters which are particle size, initial concentration of copper ion solution, adsorbent dosage, contact time and pH. Atomic absorption spectroscopy (AAS) was used to detect the copper ion in the sample. For isotherm modelling, the studies determined the best model between Langmuir isotherm model and Freundlich isotherm model. The optimum conditions obtained for this study are particle size of 150 µm, initial concentration of copper ion of 30 mg/L, adsorbent dosage of 0.4g, contact time 120 min and pH at pH 6. The isotherm model that was best fitted with the experimental data is Langmuir model. From this study, the raw tree bark was found to be potential adsorbent for the removal of copper ions.