Sodium hydroxide modified rice husk for enhanced removal of copper ions

Although rice husk (RH) is a readily available, natural, heavy metal adsorbent, adsorption capacity in its natural form is insufficient for certain heavy metal ions. In this context, the study is based on enhancement of the adsorption capacity of RH for Cu(II). NaOH modified rice husk (SRH) shows higher extent of removal for Cu(II) ions than that of heated rice husk (HRH) and HNO₃ modified rice husk (NRH). The extent of removal of SRH is increased with the concentration of NaOH, and the optimum NaOH concentration is 0.2 mol dm^-3, used to modify rice husk for further studies. The surface area of SRH is 215 m² g^-1, which is twice as much as that of HRH according to previous studies. The sorption of Cu(II) on SRH obeys the Langmuir adsorption model, leading to the maximum adsorption capacity of 1.19 × 10⁴ mg kg^-1. Kinetics studies show that the interaction of Cu(II) with SRH obeys pseudo second order kinetics. The X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy confirms the adsorption of Cu(II) on SRH, while desorption studies confirm that Cu(II) adsorbed on SRH does not leach it back to water under normal conditions.