Investigation on the use of aluminium rich sandy soil as natural adsorbent in the removal of lead from water

<jats:title>Abstract</jats:title><jats:p>The feasibility of aluminium rich sandy soil collected from Jeram as natural adsorbent in removing lead (Pb) from water was investigated without any surface modification. The investigation on the effect of initial concentration, solution pH, and soil:solution ratio was carried out using response surface methodology. The adsorption efficiency was increased at higher pH and soil:solution ratio, as well as lower initial concentration, as a result of higher availability of adsorption sites and less adsorbate competition. The adsorption followed Langmuir isotherm and monolayer chemisorption with an adsorption capacity of 10.64 mg g<jats:sup>−1</jats:sup>. The process followed pseudo-second order kinetic model, with a rate constant of 0.011 g mg<jats:sup>−1</jats:sup>min<jats:sup>−1</jats:sup>at optimum adsorption pH of 4-5.</jats:p>