Lead is a very toxic element known to cause detrimental effects to human health even at very low concentrations. So it is a necessity to remove these heavy metals from wastewater in order to prevent contamination of natural water bodies by effluents containing toxic metals. Removal of lead from aqueous solution was studied using a low-cost adsorbent material prepared from the leaves of Lantana camara plant. It is known as Lantana camara leaves biocarbon (LCLBC) Batch adsorption experiments were conducted to examine the effect of contact time, pH, initial metal ion concentration and adsorbent dosage at room temperature. The influence of pH of the metal ion solutions on the uptake levels of the metal ions by the adsorbent was carried out between pH 3 - 8. The optimum pH required for maximum adsorption of lead was found to be 6. An equilibrium time of 150 min. was required for the adsorption of Pb (II) ions onto the adsorbent. The percentage removal of lead onto the biocarbon was 95.50 %. Adsorption parameters were determined using both Langmuir and Freundlich isotherms, but the experimental data were well fitted to the Langmuir equation than to Freundlich equation, indicating monolayer coverage by the Pb (II) ions. From biosorption kinetics, it was observed that the pseudo-second-order model is well fitted for Pb (II) ions. The correlation coefficient (r2) for the second-order model is 0.9805. This study also showed that LCLBC can be efficiently used as low-cost alternative adsorbent for the removal of metal ions.
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