Abstract

ISABELA ABENE, Damodara Reddy V. and Saayi Krushna G.

Sorption of Cd 2+ , Fe 2+ and Zn 2+ by blend membrane of sodium alginate (Na-Alg) and poly (acrylamide) grafted konkoli gum (KG-g-PAAM) in aqueous solution was studied. Membrane sorption capacities for Cd 2+ , Fe 2+ and Zn 2+ were found to be 97.85, 80.65 and 64.46% respectively. The sorption behavior with respect to contact time, initial pH, temperature, ionic strength and initial metal ion concentration were investigated in order to determine the optimum sorption conditions. Results showed that metal ion uptake by the membrane decreased with increase in ionic strength and after a temperature of 40 o C while increase in initial metal ion concentration led to increase in metal ion uptake. Maximum sorption was found to occur at pH of 6.0, 3.0 and 5.0 for Cd 2+ , Fe 2+ and Zn 2+ respectively. The ability of the grafted membrane to remove some heavy metals from aqueous solution is encouraging and may be used in bioremediation of wastewaters.