Sorptive activity of potential native biosorbent for the elimination of lead and cadmium in one and two-component system: characterization, kinetic activity, and mechanism exploration

, and change in surface morphology by scanning electron microscopy. The point of zero charges pH pzc of xanthate-modified P. vulgaris was observed to be 7.20 which makes it appropriate for the sorp- tion of cations. The batch sorption implementation of xanthate-modified P. vulgaris includes sorbent amount, pH, linear and non-linear regression analysis, and kinetic curves. The xanthate-modified P. vulgaris adsorbed 95.65% cadmium (at pH 4.0) and 90.36% of lead (at pH 5.0) from a single aqueous system. The sorption of Pb 2+ and Cd 2+ by xanthate-modified P. vulgaris follow the linear regression of Langmuir isotherm with q max of 160.97 and 150.50 mg/L, respectively which is substantially greater than that of many other reported ones. The xanthate-modified P. vulgaris demonstrated rapid uptake capacity of Pb 2+ and Cd 2+ following the high value of correlation coefficient with pseudo-second-order kinetics. This sorption process for Pb 2+ and Cd 2+ was found to be endothermic and spontaneous. The binding capacities however reduced in the binary system. This, therefore revealed that the xanthate-modified P. vulgaris can be an encouraging biosorbent for the remediation of Pb 2+ and Cd 2+ from contaminated water.