Biosorption characteristics of cadmium and lead onto eco-friendly dried cactus

(Opuntia cus indica) cladodes

Noureddine Barka
a,
*, Mohamed Abdennouri
a
, Mohammed El Makhfouk
b
, Samir Qourzal
c
a
Equipe de Recherche Gestion de lEau et Developpement Durable (GEDD), Faculte Polydisciplinaire de Khouribga, Universite Hassan 1
er
, Hay Ezzaitouna, B.P. 145 Khouribga, Morocco
b
Equipe de Recherche Analyse Controle et Environnement (ERACE), Ecole Superieure de Technologie de Sa, B.P. 89, Route Dar Si Aissa, Sa, Morocco
c
Equipe de Materiaux, Photocatalyse et Environnement, Departement de Chimie, Faculte des Sciences, Universite Ibn Zohr, B.P. 8106 Cite Dakhla, Agadir, Morocco
Introduction
Toxic metal compounds are frequently used in industrial
processes and are widely distributed in the environment. The
presence of toxic metals in the environment can be harmful to
humans and living species even in low concentration. Since toxic
metals do not degrade into harmless end-products, they can
accumulate in living bodies and getting concentrated through the
food chain [1]. Numerous metals such as cadmium, mercury, lead,
chromium, copper, manganese, etc., are known to be signicantly
toxic. The removal and recovery of heavy metals from wastewater is
signicant in the protection of the environment and human health.
Many physicochemical methods are available for heavy metal
removal from aqueous solution, including sorption [2], chemical
precipitation [3], solvent extraction [4], reverse osmosis [5], ion
exchange [6], ltration [7], and electrochemical treatment [8].
Among the various water-treatment techniques described, sorp-
tion is generally preferred for the removal of heavy metal ions due
to its high efciency, easy handling and availability of different
sorbents. At present, there is a growing interest in using low-cost
and non-conventional alternative materials instead of traditional
sorbents.
The use of natural biomaterials is a promising alternative due to
their relative abundance and their low commercial value. Recently,
many industrial, agricultural and forestry sources are used as
biosorbents such as, red mud [9], sunower stalks [10], spent grain
[11], wheat bran [12], Aspergillus niger [13], Scolymus hispanicus L.
[14], eggshell and coral [15], maize bran [16], saw dust and neem
bark [17], citrus peels [18], Rosa gruss an teplitz [19], Echornia
speciosa [20], Cupressus sempervirens, Eucalyptus longifoliaand and
Pinus halepensis [21] and Pleurotus cornucopiae [22].
The prickly pear cactus (Opuntia cus indica; Opuntia spp.,
Cactaceae) is a cheap and easily available plant. The cactus
cladodes are mainly constituted by a heteropolysaccharide with a
molecular weight from 2.3 10
4
to 3 10
6
g/mol [23,24]. The O.
cus indica mucilage is a mixture of acidic and neutral poly-
saccharides consisting primarily of arabinose; galactose; galac-
turonic acid; rhamnose and xylose [25]. Multiples uses have been
found for this component, for instance as a food thickener, food
emulsier, as a water purier (polyelectrolyte molecule), as an
adhesive for lime [Ca(OH)
2
], as a natural super plasticizer in
mortars and as a food product [23,24,26,27].
The focus of the present study was to assess the potentiality of
dried prickly pear cactus cladodes biomass as a low-cost, natural
and eco-friendly biosorbent for the biosorption of cadmium (II)
and lead (II) ions from aqueous solution as an ideal alternative to
the current expensive methods of removing metals from waste-
water. The effects of average biosorbent particle size, pH,
Journal of Environmental Chemical Engineering 1 (2013) 144149
A R T I C L E I N F O
Article history:
Received 1 February 2013
Accepted 15 April 2013
Keywords:
Prickly pear cactus
Low-cost biosorbent
Heavy metals
Biosorption
A B S T R A C T
The biosorption of cadmium (II) and lead (II) ions onto a natural, plentiful and low-cost biosorbent
developed from cactus cladodes was investigated in batch mode. Experiments were carried out as a
function of average biosorbent particle size, pH, biosorbent mass, contact time, initial metal
concentration and temperature. The experimental results indicate that, the percentage of biosorption
increases with an increase in the biosorbent dosage and the decrease of particle size. The equilibrium
uptake was increased with an increase in the initial metal concentration in solution. The maximum
biosorption occurred at pH of 5.8 and 3.5, respectively for cadmium (II) and lead (II) ions. Biosorption
kinetic data were properly tted with the pseudo-second-order kinetic model. The equilibrium data
tted very well to the Langmuir model with a maximum monolayer biosorption capacity of 30.42 and
98.62 mg/g, respectively for cadmium (II) and lead (II) ions. The biosorption yield decreases with an
increase in solution temperature. The FTIR analysis of unloaded and metal loaded biosorbent indicated
the involvement of C55O, OC and COC groups in metal binding.
2013 Elsevier Ltd All rights reserved.
* Corresponding author. Tel.: +212 661 66 66 22; fax: +212 523 49 03 54.
E-mail address: barkanoureddine@yahoo.fr (N. Barka).
Contents lists available at SciVerse ScienceDirect
Journal of Environmental Chemical Engineering
j ou r n al h o mepag e: w ww. el sevi er . co m / l ocat e/ j ec e
2213-3437/$ see front matter 2013 Elsevier Ltd All rights reserved.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jece.2013.04.008
biosorbent dosage, contact time, initial metal concentration and
temperature were investigated.
Experimental
Preparation of the biosorbent
The prickly pear cactus cladodes were naturally collected in July
2011 near Sa in Morocco. They were repeatedly washed with
distilled water to remove dirt particles and were sun dried for 3
weeks, cutting into small pieces and then were dried at 60 8C for
24 h. The dried plant was then powdered using domestic mixer.
The biosorbent was stored in a glass bottle for further use without
any pre-treatment.
Preparation of metal ions solutions
A stock solutions of 1 g/L of Cd(II) and Pb(II) ions was prepared
by dissolving appropriate amount of Cd(NO
3
)
2
.4H
2
O and Pb(NO
3
)
2
in distilled water. The used concentrations were obtained by
dilution of the stock solution. The pH was adjusted to a given value
by addition of HCl (1 N) and was measured using a JENWAY pH-
Meter 3305. All the necessary chemicals used in the study were of
analytical grade.
Biosorption experiments
Biosorption experiments were conducted in 250 mL conical
asks at a constant agitation speed. The effect of biosorbent
particle size was carried out by varying the biosorbent particle
sizes from particles less than 100 mm to particles bigger than
500 mm, the initial metal concentration was 100 mg/L, the
temperature was 25 8C, the biosorbent dosage was 2 g/L and the
pH was 5.8 for Cd(II) and 3.5 for Pb(II). For all other experiments,
the fraction of particles less than 100 mm was used. These
experiments were carried out by varying the pH from 2.3 to 6.5 and
from 2.3 to 5; respectively for Cd(II) and Pb(II), the biosorbent
dosage was varied from 0.5 to 10 g/L, contact time from 5 to
120 min, the initial metal concentrations from 30 to 300 mg/L and
the temperature from 25 to 60 8C. The temperature was controlled
using an isothermal shaker. After each biosorption experiment
completed, the sample were centrifuged at 3000 rpm for 10 min to
separate the solid phase from the liquid phase.
Analyses
Specic surface area was determined by using N
2
as the sorbate
at 77 K in a Micromeritics TriStar II 3020 sorptometer. Samples
were outgassed prior to use at 473 K a night under vacuum.
Specic total surface areas were calculated using the B.E.T.
equation. FTIR was also used to identify functional groups
responsible for metal binding. Original dried cactus, Cd- and Pb-
loaded dried cactus (ltered and dried after contact with Cd(II) and
Pb(II) solution) were mixed with KBr at a ratio of 1:100 and
compressed into lms for FTIR analysis using a SCO-Tech SP-FTIR-1
spectrometer (Germany). Metal ions concentrations were deter-
mined using an atomic absorption spectrophotometer type GBC
904 (Australia).
The biosorbed quantity and the biosorption yield were
calculated using the following equations:
q
C
0
C
R
(1)
% Biosorption
C
0
C
C
0
100 (2)
where q (mg/g) is the quantity of metal ions biosorbed per unit
mass of biosorbent, % biosorption is the biosorption yield, C
0
(mg/L)
is the initial metal ions concentration, C (mg/L) is the metal ions
concentration after biosorption and R (g/L) is the mass of
biosorbent per litre of aqueous solution.
Results and discussion
Effect of pH
The pH of the aqueous solution is one of the major parameters
controlling the biosorption process [2830]. Fig. 1 shows the effect
of pH on the biosorption capacity of dried cactus. The gure
indicates that the removal of both Cd(II) and Pb(II) ions from
aqueous solution was strongly affected by medium pH. The
biosorption was week in acidic medium and increases with pH
solution increase. The biosorption capacity of dried cactus
increased from 2.97 to 12.34 mg/g and from 19.76 to 29.18 mg/
g when the solution pH was increased from 2.3 to 5.8 and from 2.3
to 3.5, respectively for Cd(II) and Pb(II). At lower pH values, the
biosorption of Cd(II) and Pb(II) are low because large quantities of
proton compete with metal cations for biomass surface. As the pH
increased, the number of positively charged available sites
decreased and the number of negatively charged sites increased.
The surface of the biosorbent becomes negatively charged, and this
increases the biosorption of the positively charged metal ions
through electrostatic forces of attraction. Similar results were
found by Wang et al. for the biosorption of Cd(II) and Pb(II) onto
dried activated sludge [31]. The decrease of the xation of lead for
pH upper than 3.5 is due to the complexation of lead ions by OH

groups which would prevent the metal biosorption [32].

The difference in biosorption trend of cadmium and lead may be
attributed to the differences in behaviour among these metals or
their ions in solution. Whereas, Pb(II) is adsorbed as hydrolysed
species, Cd(II) is not. This behaviour is attributed to a number of
factors which include (i) the smaller hydrated radius of lead (II)
(0.401 nm) compared to cadmium (II) (0.426 nm); (ii) the higher
electronegativity of Pb than Cd (2.10 and 1.69 respectively); (iii)
the pK
OH
(negative log. of hydrolysis constant) of 7.78 and 11.70 for
Pb(OH)
2
and Cd(OH)
2
respectively; and (iv) the strength of acidity
of these metals (Pb is a border line hard Lewis acid while Cd is soft
Lewis acid). These factors make Pb(II) to be more preferentially
adsorbed through inner-sphere surface complexation reactions
than Cd(II).
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
pH
q
e

(
m
g
/
g
)
Cd
Pb
Fig. 1. Effect of pH on the biosorption of Cd(II) and Pb(II) by dried cactus cladodes:
C
0
= 100 mg/L, particle size <100 mm, R = 0.5 g/L, contact time = 120 min, and
temperature = 25 8C.
N. Barka et al. / Journal of Environmental Chemical Engineering 1 (2013) 144149 145
Effect of temperature on biosorption
The variation of Cd(II) and Pb(II) biosorbed on dried cactus as
function of solution temperature is shows in Fig. 2. It was observed
that the biosorption decreased as the temperature increased from
25 8C to 60 8C, which indicates a low temperature favours Cd(II)
and Pb(II) biosorption. Generally, the temperature has two major
effects on the biosorption process. Increasing the temperature is
known to increase the rate of diffusion of the biosorbed molecules
across the external boundary layer and the internal pores of the
biosorbent particles, owing to the decrease in the viscosity of the
solution. In addition, changing temperature will change the
equilibrium capacity of the adsorbent for a particular adsorbate.
The observed trend may be due to the tendency of Cd(II) and Pb(II)
ions to escape from the solid phase to the bulk phase with an
increase in temperature of the solution.
Effect of biosorbent particle size
The kinetics of Cd(II) and Pb(II) biosorption was carried out for
different particle sizes of dried cactus varying from particles less
than 100 mm to particles bigger than 500 mm. The results are
illustrated in Figs. 3 and 4. The gures show that the biosorption
was found to be rapid at the rst period of the process and then the
rate of biosorption becomes slower and then stagnates with the
increase in contact time. It was found that the particle size
inuences slightly the biosorption process. The decrease in particle
size increases the amount of both Cd(II) and Pb(II) biosorption at
equilibrium. The biosorbed amounts at equilibrium increased from
6.56 to 11.75 mg/g and from 8.93 to 26.04 mg/g, respectively for
Cd(II) and Pb(II), when the particles size was decreased from
particles bigger than 500 mm to particles less than 100 mm. The
higher biosorption with smaller biosorbent particles could be
attributed to the fact that smaller particles provided a larger
specic surface area as shown in Table 1, which indicates that
specic surface area of dried prickly pear cactus decreases with the
increase in the particle size has a very small specic surface area.
For further experiments, the fraction of particles less than 100 mm
was selected because of its high removal capacities.
Effect of biosorbent dosage
Data obtained from the experiments with varying biosorbent
dosages are presented in Fig. 5. It showed that increasing
biosorbent dosage resulted in a sharply increase in the biosorption
yield. The biosorption yield increased from 10.49% to 36.71% and
from 34.12% to 78.82%, when the biosorbent dosage was increased
from 0.5 to 4.0 g/L and from 0.5 to 10.0 g/L, respectively for Cd(II)
and Pb(II). The observed enhancement in biosorption yield with
increasing biosorbent dosage could be due to an increase in the
number of possible binding sites and surface area of the biosorbent
[33]. A further increase in biomass concentration over 4.0 g/L for
Cd(II) and 10.0 g/L for Pb(II) did not lead to a signicant
improvement in biosorption yield. It could be explained as a
consequence of a partial aggregation of biomass, which results in a
decrease in effective specic surface area for the biosorption [34].
Biosorption kinetics modelling
Biosorption kinetics data were analysed using two kinetic
models, pseudo-rst-order model and pseudo-second-orde
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
10 20 30 40 50 60 70
Temperature (C)
q
e

(
m
g
/
g
)
Cd
Pb
Fig. 2. Effect of temperature on the biosorption of Cd(II) and Pb(II) by dried cactus:
C
0
= 100 mg/L, R = 0.5 g/L, particle size <100 mm, contact time = 120 min, pH = 5.8
for Cd(II) and 3.5 for Pb(II).
0
2
4
6
8
10
12
14
0 20 40 60 80 100
Contact time (min)
q

(
m
g
/
g
)
<100m 100-200m
200-500m >500m
Fig. 3. Effect of biosorbent particle size on the biosorption kinetics of Cd(II) by dried
cactus cladodes: C
0
= 100 mg/L, temperature = 25 8C, R = 0.5 g/L, and pH = 5.8.
0
4
8
12
16
20
24
28
0 20 40 60 80 100 120
Contact time (min)
q

(
m
g
/
g
)
<100m 100-200m
200-500m >500m
Fig. 4. Effect of biosorbent particle size on the biosorption kinetics of Pb(II) by dried
cactus cladodes: C
0
= 100 mg/L, temperature = 25 8C, R = 0.5 g/L, and pH = 3.5.
Table 1
Specic surface area of dried prickly pear cactus cladodes with different particle
sizes.
Particle size Specic surface area (m
2
/g)
d < 100 mm 1.016
100 mm < d < 200 mm 0.839
250 mm < d < 500 mm 0.668
d > 500 mm 0.533
N. Barka et al. / Journal of Environmental Chemical Engineering 1 (2013) 144149 146
model. The rst-order rate expression of Lagergren based on solid
capacity is generally expressed as follows [35]:
dq
dt
k
1
q
e
q (3)
After integrating and applying the boundary conditions, for q = 0 at
t = 0 and q = q at t = t, the integrated form of Eq. (3) becomes:
q q
e
1 e
k
1
t
(4)
where q
e
and q (both in mg/g) are respectively the amounts of dye
adsorbed at equilibrium and at any time t, and k
1
(min
1
) is the
rate constant of biosorption
The pseudo-second-order model proposed by Ho and McKay
[36] was used to explain the sorption kinetics. This model is based
on the assumption that the adsorption follows second order
chemisorption. The pseudo-second-order model can be expressed
as:
dq
dt
k
2
q
e
q
2
(5)
After integrating for the similar boundary conditions, the following
equation can be obtained:
q
k
2
q
2
e
t
1 k
2
q
e
t
(6)
where k
2
(g/mg min) is the rate constant of pseudo-second order
adsorption.
Parameters of the pseudo-rst-order and pseudo-second-order
models were estimated with the aid of the non-linear regression.
The obtained data and the correlation coefcients, r
2
, are given in
Table 2. The table shows that the correlation coefcients for
pseudo-rst-order are very low and the predicted values of q
e
were
not reasonably close to experimental q
e
values, suggesting the
insufciency of pseudo-rst-order model to t the kinetic data. The
correlation coefcients for the pseudo-second-order kinetic model
are nearly equal to 1 and the predicted values of q
e
are comparable
to the experimental ones. This suggests that the biosorption of
Cd(II) and Pb(II) onto dried cactus is presumably a chemisorption
process involving exchange or sharing of electrons mainly between
metal ions and functional groups (mainly hydroxyl and carboxyl
groups) of the biosorbent.
Biosorption isotherm
The equilibrium sorption capacity of dried cactus for cadmium
and lead ions increased with a rise in initial concentration, as
shown in Fig. 6. Metal ions removal is highly concentration
dependent. The increase in biosorption capacity with concentra-
tion is probably due to a high driving force for mass transfer. In fact,
high concentration in solution implicates high metal ions xed at
the surface of the biosorbent. The isotherms form was type L in
Giles classication [37]. These types of isotherms are usually
associated with ionic solute adsorption (e.g., metal cations and
ionic dyes) with weak competition with the solvent molecules
[38]. The Langmuir and Freundlich models were applied for the
analysis of equilibrium sorption data obtained. The Langmuir
isotherm model [39] is valid for a monolayer sorption onto a
surface of a nite number of identical sites. The Langmuir model
and is given by Eq. (7):
q
e

q
m
K
L
C
e
1 K
L
C
e
(7)
where q
e
(mg/g) is the biosorbed amount at equilibrium, C
e
is the
equilibrium concentration of the metal ion (mg/L), K
L
is Langmuir
equilibrium constant (L/mg) and q
m
the maximum biosorption
capacity (mg/g).
The empirical Freundlich isotherm [40] is obtained on the
assumption that the sorption takes place on a heterogeneous
sorbent surface, where the sorption energy distribution decreases
exponentially. This equation is also applicable to multilayer
sorption and is expressed by the following equation:
q
e
K
F
C
1=n
e
(8)
where K
F
(mg
11/n
g
1
L
1/n
) is the Freundlich constant and n is the
heterogeneity factor. The K
F
value is related to the biosorption
capacity; while 1/n value is related to the sorption intensity.
The Langmuir and Freundlich biosorption constants evaluated
from the isotherm with the correlation coefcients are presented
in Table 3. The table indicates that the best t of experimental data
was obtained with the Langmuir model with r
2
value close to 1.
0
20
40
60
80
0 3 6 9 12 15
R(g/L)
%

B
i
o
s
o
r
p
t
i
o
n
Cd
Pb
Fig. 5. Effect of biosorbent dosage on the biosorption of Cd(II) and Pb(II) by dried
cactus: C
0
= 100 mg/L, particle size <100 mm, contact time = 120 min,
temperature = 25 8C, pH = 5.8 for Cd(II) and 3.5 for Pb(II).
Table 2
Kinetic constants for Cd(II) and Pb(II) biosorption onto dried cactus cladodes.
Metal q
exp
(mg/g)
Pseudo-rst-order Pseudo-second-order
q
e
(mg/g)
k
1
(min
1
)
r
2
q
e
(mg/g)
k
2
(g/mg min)
r
2
Cd(II) 11.75 11.40 0.294 0.974 12.07 0.0638 0.994
Pb(II) 26.04 25.32 0.772 0.989 26.24 0.0031 0.995
Fig. 6. Biosorption isotherms for Cd(II) and Pb(II): R = 0.5 g/L, particle size <100 mm,
contact time = 120 min, temperature = 25 8C, pH = 5.8 for Cd(II) and 3.5 for Pb(II).
N. Barka et al. / Journal of Environmental Chemical Engineering 1 (2013) 144149 147
This result suggests that the Langmuir isotherm may be a suitable
model for our data. It was concluded that the removal process of
Cd(II) and Pb(II) by dried cactus was monolayer biosorption, and
the maximum monolayer biosorption capacity was found to be
30.42 and 98.62 mg/g, respectively for Cd(II) and Pb(II).
The obtained biosorption capacities of dried cactus cladodes
was compared to previously reported works on the biosorption
capacities of various low-cost biosorbent. Table 4 shows that
experimental data of the present study was found to be higher than
those of many corresponding biosorbents in the literature.
FTIR characterization and contribution of functional groups to metal
binding
The FTIR spectra of dried cactus biosorbent and metals ions
loaded biosorbent were compared to determine which functional
groups are responsible for the Cd(II) and Pb(II) biosorption. The
obtained results are presented in Fig. 7. The spectra of dried cactus
has a broad absorption peaks at around 32003500 cm
1
, indicates
the presence of carboxylic acid and amino groups. The absorption
band at 2921 cm
1
could be assigned to asymmetric vibration of
CH. The stretching vibration band at 2850 cm
1
is due to methoxy
group (CH
3
O). The stretching vibration band 1620 cm
1
is due to
asymmetric stretching of the carboxylic C55O double bond. A
1432 cm
1
is of phenolic OH and C55O stretching of carbox-
ylates. A 1384 cm
1
band could be stretching vibration of COO.
The band at 1072 cm
1
band could be due to the vibration of C
OC and OH of polysaccharides. Peaks in the region of lower wave
numbers (under 800 cm
1
) appeared as a broad peak and this
could be attributed to N containing bioligands [30,47]. Spectra
analysis after Cd(II) and Pb(II) biosorption showed that there was a
substantial decrease in the wave number of asymmetric stretching
of the carboxylic C55O double bond from 1620 for unloaded dried
cactus to 1616 and 1604 cm
1
, respectively for Cd- and Pb-loaded
dried cactus. The band at 1432 cm
1
was shifted to 1427 cm
1
for
Cd-loaded biosorbent and was not observed for Pb-loaded
biosorbent. The band at 1072 cm
1
shifted to 1060 and
1043 cm
1
, respectively for Cd- and Pb-loaded dried cactus. This
results indicates that carboxylic acid groups were likely responsi-
ble for binding Cd(II) and Pb(II) by dried cactus biosorbent. The
groups of COH, and COC also involved in Cd(II) and Pb(II)
binding to some extent.
Conclusions
In this study, biosorption experiments for the removal of
cadmium and lead ions from aqueous solutions have been carried
out using dried cactus as low-cost and natural available biosorbent.
It was found that the biosorption was rapid and increased by the
decrease in biosorbent average particle size. The optimum
biosorption was achieved at pH 5.8 and 3.5 for Cd(II) and Pb(II)
Table 3
Langmuir and Freundlich isotherms constants for the biosorption of Cd(II) and Pb(II)
onto dried cactus.
Freundlich constants Langmuir constants
K
F
(mg
11/n
g
1
L
1/n
)
n r
2
q
m
(mg/g)
K
L
(L/mg)
r
2
Cd(II) 1.55 2.05 0.972 30.42 0.011 0.991
Pb(II) 2.21 1.59 0.976 98.62 0.008 0.995
Table 4
Comparison of maximum biosorption capacity of dried cactus cladodes for
cadmium(II) and lead(II) with other low-cost biosorbents.
Biosorbent material q
m
(mg/g) q
m
(mg/g) References
Cd(II) Pb(II)
Spent grain 17.30 35.50 [11]
Wheat bran 62.00 21.00 [12]
Scolymus hispanicus L. 54.05 [14]
Neem bark 25.57 [17]
Citrus peels 480.70 [18]
Dried activated sludge 84.3 131.6 [31]
Alginate 30.91 58.02 [41]
Anaerobic granular biomass 59.67 254.85 [42]
Penicillium simplicissimum 61.35 87.72 [43]
Wheat straw 14.61 [44]
Maize bran 142.86 [45]
Carpobrotus edulis 27.9 175.6 [46]
Euphorbia echinus 23.5 165.1 [46]
Senecio anthophorbium 18.9 149.6 [46]
Launea arborescens 11.50 129.90 [46]
Cephalosporium aphidicola 92.41 [47]
Flammulina velutipes 8.43 18.34 [48]
Trichoderma ressie 82.645 [49]
Dried cactus cladodes 30.42 98.62 This study
Fig. 7. FT-IR spectra of unloaded (1), Cd-loaded (2) and Pb-loaded (3) dried cactus.
N. Barka et al. / Journal of Environmental Chemical Engineering 1 (2013) 144149 148
ions, respectively. The increase in mass biosorbent leads to
increase in metals ions biosorption due to increase in number of
biosorption sites. The equilibrium metals uptake was increased
with increasing the initial metal concentration. The biosorption
kinetics was well described by the pseudo-second order kinetic
model equation. The biosorption isotherms could be well tted by
the Langmuir equation. The biosorption capacity decreases with an
increase in solution temperature. The carboxylic acid groups were
likely responsible for metal binding. Finally, dried cactus can be
used as an alternative effective natural biosorbent in the removal
of metals from wastewaters.
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