ABSTRACT

Abstract ................................................................................................. 143 9.1 Introduction .................................................................................. 144 9.2 Experimental ................................................................................ 145 9.3 Results and Discussion ................................................................ 148 9.4 Conclusions .................................................................................. 151 Acknowledgment .................................................................................. 151 Keywords .............................................................................................. 152 References ............................................................................................. 152

ABSTRACT

Release of heavy metals into environment through industrial effluents may pose a serious threat due to the growing discharge, toxicity and other adverse effects. In this report, sorption of Pb2+ and Cd2+ by a

bionanocomposite prepared by incorporating nano-sized hydroxyapatite into alginate-gelatin polymeric matrix has been discussed. The adsorption kinetics and equilibrium studies revealed that the adsorption process followed a Pseudo-second-order kinetic and Langmuir isotherm model respectively. This study shows that the hydroxyapatite-alginate-gelatin composite holds great potential to remove the cationic heavy metals from the environmental wastewater.