Biosorption of carbaryl from aqueous solution onto Pistia stratiotes biomass

In this work, adsorption of carbaryl from aqueous solution on Pistia stratiotes biomass was investigated. The effects of operating parameters such as initial concentration, pH, adsorbent dose and contact time on the adsorption of carbaryl were analyzed using response surface methodology. The proposed quadratic model for central composite design fitted very well to the experimental data that it could be used to navigate the design space according to analysis of variance results. Response surface plots were used to determine the interaction effects of main factors and optimum conditions of the process. The optimum adsorption conditions were found to be initial carbaryl concentration = 15.57 mg L-1, pH 2.01, adsorbent dose = 0.72 g and contact time = 30 min. The Langmuir, Freundlich and Temkin isotherm models were applied to the equilibrium data. The maximum biosorption capacity of P. stratiotes biomass for carbaryl was found to be 3.1 mg g(-1). The pseudo-second-order kinetic model described the carbaryl biosorption process with a good fitting.