KINETICS INVOLVING DIVALENT ZINC IONS COMPLEXATION WITH CHITOSAN: APPLICATION TO METAL JON EXTRACTION

Abstract

A batch process equilibrium study of a snail shell based chitosan-divalent zinc metal complexation in aqueous solution was studied. Zn (II) complexation behaviour could be described using the Langmuir isotherm over the whole concentration range of 10 tol000 mg.L1 Zn at pH 4.5. The results indicate that as the concentration of the Zn (II) is increased, so does the time taken before equilibrium is reached. However that with this method, end concentrations of below 1 mg·L-1 can hardly be obtained.