NOVEL KINETIC MODELLING AND OPTIMIZATION FOR ADSORPTION OF Zn2+ OVER GRAPHENE OXIDE

The exponential growth of adsorptive studies rarely provides actual physical translation of results for decision making processes. The kinetic adsorptive behaviour of Zn2+ over graphene oxide was studied using type I, II, III, and IV pseudo second order kinetic models. Graphene oxide was prepared successfully and all experimental runs done in triplicates and average values reported. Microsoft excel spreadsheet programming was employed for the first time on Zn2+ sorption studies and used to model the experimental data to determine the best fit of the pseudo second order kinetic models. The Type I pseudo second order and type I model had the best correlation coefficient at 0.999 and 1. The qe and H values of the model type I, II, III models, and Type I, II and III pseudo second order kinetic models were all in agreement with experimental data. The half time (t1/2) of pseudo type IV and the model type IV showed a spontaneous interaction between the adsorbent and adsorbate; a correlation with large values of their H and qe values. Hence we concluded that our model allows researchers to make well informed decisions when applying the pseudo second order kinetic model to their sorption data.