Abstract
The present study investigates four adsorbents prepared from watermelon rind as a lignocellulosic material for developing efficient adsorbents for cadmium removal from aqueous solution and environmental real samples. Watermelon rind was microwave-irradiated in , NaOH and deionized water. Adsorption experiments were performed in batch mode to study the effects of physical and chemical treatments on cadmium adsorption properties of the powder. The isotherm analysis revealed that Langmuir model could describe the adsorption data and the maximum adsorption capacities were found to be the highest when the watermelon was irradiated in deionized water. The pseudo-second-order model better fitted the obtained kinetics data, and the adsorption process was spontaneous and exothermic. The results suggested that modified watermelon rind had the potential to become a promising material for in situ cadmium metal-contaminated water treatment.