The increasing level of toxic metals in the environment is causing serious repercussions on the health of human beings. To mitigate the adverse effects of heavy metal concentration in the receiving waters, it is necessary to develop an affordable cost effective technology, which is effective to remove the heavy metals. The purpose of the present work is to investigate the removal of Nickel and Zinc ions from the water using known adsorbents. Chitin is a biopolymer used as as adsorbent to remove metal ions from the solution. Chitin is inexpensive adsorbent and is available abundantly.

In this study, the adsorption techniques, such as variations at different pH levels, contact time and dosage of known concentration of different metal standard solutions and quantity of adsorbent were carried out. The experimental data is attached overleaf with different isotherms and kinetic models.

The results revealed that the optimum pH found in the removal of Zn and Nickel ions is 6-6.5. The equilibrium attained after 7 minutes. The low pore size was observed to be effective for adsorption. The results of the experimental data revealed that the adsorption process follows the first order kinetic model. By using Langmuir isotherm, the adsorption capacity of Chitin was evaluated.

The results indicate that the Chitin is one of the best adsorbents for the removal of cations from the aqueous solution.