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Journal of Environmental Protection, 2013, 4, 280-289 /10.4236/jep.2013.43033 Published Online March 2013 (/journal/jep) Chemically Modified Cornulaca monacantha Biomass for Bioadsorption of Hg (II) from Contaminated Water: Adsorption Mechanism 1,2* 1 A. Hashem , Khalid A. Al-Kheraije 1 Faculty of Science and Arts at Shaqra, Shaqra University, Shaqra, KSA; National Research Centre, Textile Research Division, 2 Cairo, Egypt. ashem2000@, alihashem@.sa Email: * Received January 3 , 2013; revised February 4 , 2013; accepted February 26 , 2013 rd th th ABSTRACT Cornulaca monacantha (CM) a desert plant has been utilized as adsorbent material for the removal of Hg (II) ions from contaminated water after treatment with acrylamide in alkaline medium to form carbamoylethylated Cornulaca mona- cantha (CECM). Three levels of CECM having different nitrogen content were prepared. The CECM samples were characterized by estimating the nitrogen content. The ability of CECM to adsorb Hg (II) was investigated by using batch adsorption procedure. The data of the adsorption isotherm was tested by the Langmuir, Freundlich and Temkin models. The removal of Hg (II) onto CECM particles could be well described by the pseudo-second order model. The adsorption rate of mercury was affected by the initial Hg (II) ion concentration, initial pH, adsorbent concentration and agitation time as well as extent of modification. The adsorption experiments indicated that the CECM particles have great potential for the removal of Hg (II) from contaminated water. The maximum adsorption capacity, Qmax of the CECM towards Hg (II) ions was found to be 384.6 mg/g at 30?C. Similarly, the Freundlich constant, n was found to be 2.03 at 30?C. Keywords: Cor