Conclusions
A new method for making use of large amounts of fishbone waste, produced annually in Egypt, for removal of hazardous heavy metals from wastewater is reported. Thus, the synthesis of sorption-active fishbone has been achieved by radiation-induced graft polymerization of acrylic acid onto fishbone. Varying experimental parameters such as radiation dose, reaction time and solvent on the grafted fishbone with a wide range of acrylic acid density have been investigated. Thermodynamic and adsorption kinetic parameters have been also discussed. The values of the adsorption capacities of the synthesized adsorbent materials toward lead and cadmium ions have been evaluated. The results showed that the prepared grafted fishbone can be applied for the removal of heavy metal ions from wastewater.