Abstract
Potential of unmodified Wheat Straw as an adsorbent for the removal of lead and copper was studied. Effect of pH, adsorbent
dose, contact time and initial metal concentration on the removal of the metal ions were also investigated. Maximum removal of
lead was found to be 43.55% by wheat straw under optimum conditions (pH=5, adsorbent dose=16g/L, contact time= 240
minutes, metal concentration=100 mg/L). Unmodified Wheat straw removed 0.381 mg/g of lead. While 56.36% copper removal
was achieved using unmodified wheat straw under optimum conditions (pH=5, adsorbent dose=20g/L, contact time= 120
minutes, metal concentration=100 mg/L). Unmodified Wheat Straw removed 0.587 mg/g of copper. Langmuir isotherm was
found to validate the equilibrium data of adsorption while kinetics were described by pseudo second order rate equation for both
the metals.Furthermore, competitive adsorption of lead and copper showed that lead had more affinity for Wheat Straw as
compared to copper. It was concluded that removal efficiency of unmodified Wheat Straw is much less as compared to modified
Wheat Straw.