In this research work natural bio polymer “chitosan” was synthesized using locally available fish shells and
adsorption of copper by chitosan was studied. Synthesize of chitosan involved four main stages as preconditioning,
demineralization, deprotenisation and deacetylation. Chitosan was characterized using Fourier Transform Infrared
Spectroscopy (FTIR). The affinity of chitosan for cupper was studied using anhydrous CuCl2 solution as the heavy
metal solution containing Cu (II) ions. Adsorption of cupper ions by chitosan was investigated under different
conditions. Amount of copper absorbed was evaluated using atomic adsorption spectroscopy.
Key words: Adsorption, chitosan, cupper, chitin.

1.INTRODUCTION
A good number of industries are responsible for the release of heavy metals into the environment through
their wastewater (Quek et al., 1998). Some of these heavy metals are extremely toxic elements and can seriously
affect many living species especially human; therefore their removal from wastewater is important. Efficient
removal of toxic metal ions from wastewater is an important and widely studied research area where a number of
technologies have been developed over the years (Quek et al., 1998; Deans and Dixon, 1992; Janson et al., 1982).
However, these conventional technologies appear to be inadequate and expensive. Inrecent years studies on polymers which bind metals ions have increased significantly (Deans and Dixon, 1992;Kaminski and Modrzejewska, 1997; Findon et al., 1993). This approach is inherently attractive since only the toxic

metals ions are removed while the harmless ions can be released into the environment. Some of the best chelation
ion-exchange materials are natural biopolymers (Findon et al., 1993). Natural biopolymers are available in large
quantities. Certain waste from agricultural operations may have potential to be used as low cost absorbents, as theyrepresent unused resources, widely available and are environmentally friendly (Deans and Dixon, 1992). Among themany other low cost absorbents identified, Chitosan has the highest sorption capacity for several metal ions becausethey possess a number of different functional groups such as hydroxyls and amines to which metal ions can bind
either by chemical or by physical adsorption (Dean and Dixon, 1992; Findon et al., 1993; Bailey et al., 1999).
Chitosan is a natural product derived from chitin (Figure 1), a polysaccharide foundation in the exoskeletons of
shellfish like shrimps and crabs.