Removal of Nickel (II) ions from Aqueous Solutions Using Chicken Feather Nanoparticles: Study of Kinetic, Isotherm and Thermodynamic Models

Nickel is highly toxic and directly associate with health risk such as damage to kidney, liver and central nervous system. This study evaluated the potential of a chicken feather for the removal of nickel from aqueous solutions. Freundlich, Langmuir and Temkin isotherm models were used to characterize the bio sorption of the mentioned metal onto the chicken feather. In the batch system, parameters of pH (4-8), adsorbent dosage (0.01- 0.06 g/l), contact time (15-120 min), nickel initial concentration (5-200 mg/l), and temperature (15-40 °C) were studied. Studies have shown that the maximum Nickel uptake efficiency occurred at pH = 6, concentration of 50 mg / g, contact time of 60 minutes, ambient temperature of 25 ° C and adsorbent mass of 0.03 g. The thermodynamic parameters such as Gibb's Free Energy (ΔG), Enthalpy (ΔH) and Entropy (ΔS) indicated that the adsorption of nickel ion were spontaneous and endothermic at 288–313 °K. Comparing the determination coefficients between measured data and obtained value from pseudo- second-order model (R2 = 0.95) and pseudo- first-order model (R2 = 0.65) showed that the pseudo- second-order model describes experimental data better. Also, comparing the Langmuir, Freundlich and Temkin isotherm for nickel adsorption by chicken feather nanoparticles showed that Freundlich isotherm (R2 = 0.87) was more proper than Langmuir isotherm (R2 = 0.82) and Temkin isotherm (R2 = 0.67) in describing adsorption process. According to the results of this study, chicken feather nanoparticles adsorbent with a high efficiency of 96.8% can be used to remove Nickel from aqueous solutions.