Adsorption of Cu & Ni on Bentonite Clay from Waste Water

A local bentonite clay from Jeddah, Saudi Arabia was characterized and tested for its ability to adsorb copper (Cu) and nickel (Ni) from wastewater. The clay material was characterized by x-ray diffraction (XRD), surface area and pore size (BET), and x-ray fluorescence (XRF). Besides, the local clay was tested for metal ions adsorption without pretreatment under different temperature regimes. It was found that the adsorption capacity of bentonite clay increased with an increase in the experimental temperature. The maximum adsorption capacity was 13.22 mg g-1 for copper (Cu) at 20 oC. For nickel (Ni) ions, the maximum capacity was 9.29 mg g-1 at 20 oC. A comparison among all the isotherm models at different temperatures described the experimental data well.