Isotherm and Kinetic investigations of toxic metal decontamination from biofluidby untreated biosorbent using a Batch design

The biosorption potential of biosorbent (opuntia fragalis leaves) fordecontamination of zn (ii) ions from human blood plasma (biofluid) wasinvestigated. the influence of biosorbent dose, concentration of zn (ii) ions, phand rate of biosorption was examined at constant physiological temperature(37^0c). ftir results of the biosorbent revealed that –c-br, -c-n, -n-o, -n-h, -c≡c- and –oh functional groups were responsible for the biosorption of zn (ii)ions from human blood plasma. sem micrograph revealed the active availablepore sites responsible for the binding of zn (ii) ion unto opuntia fragalis leaves.the optimum detoxification of zn (ii) ions was attained at biosorbent dose of 1.5g, initial concentration of zn (ii) ion at 40 mg/l, ph at 6 and rate of biosorptionof zn (ii) ions at 70 min. the experimental data were subjected to four adsorptionisotherm models; langmuir, freundlich, temkin and dubinin-radushkevichisotherms. the adsorption process fits into temkin isotherm with correlationcoefficient r^2 value of 0.9376, the maximum monolayer coverage capacity, qm is-1.2522 mgg^-1, langmuir isotherm constant kl is -1.029 lmg^-1, separation factorrl is -1.029 revealed a favorable biosorption process. the biosorptionexperimental data was modelled with pseudo-first order, pseudo-second order,elovich and intra particle diffusion kinetic models. pseudo first order modelexplained the biosorption process best with r^2 = 0.9998. the interaction betweenzn (ii) ions and opuntia fragalis leaves defined a chemisorption reaction whichinvolved chemical bonds formation.