An investigation was conducted on the kinetics and the equilibrium isotherm for the adsorption of nickel from aqueous solution using citric acid treated (CTCH), hydrochloric acid treated (CTCH) and sodium hydroxide treated cow hoof (STCH). The study showed that the adsorption process was pH and contact time dependent. The pH of 4, 5 and 6 were required for optimum removal of nickel ions by STCH, CTCH and HTCH respectively. Six isotherm models were applied to analyse the equilibrium data and it was discovered that Sips model best fitted the adsorption of nickel by both HTCH and STCH while the abstraction by CTCH followed the Redlich-Peterson model. The process of Ni (II) removal was dominated by physisorption based on the mean adsorption energy evaluated from the Dubinin-Raduskevich model. The maximum adsorption capacity values obtained from the Langmuir and Dubinin-Raduskevich isotherm models showed that the removal of Ni (II) could be best conducted at ambient temperature. Therefore, using citric acid treated (CTCH), hydrochloric acid treated (CTCH) and sodium hydroxide treated cow hoof for the abstraction of nickel from aqueous solution would be energetically economical.

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