ADSORPTION OF SELECTED HEAVY METALS ON ACTIVATED CARBON PREPARED FROM PLANTAIN (Musa paradisiacaL.) PEEL
ADSORPTION OF SELECTED HEAVY METALS ON ACTIVATED CARBON PREPARED FROM PLANTAIN (Musa paradisiacaL.) PEEL
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Date
2015-02
Authors
AGBELE, IDOWU ELIJAH
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Abstract
Activated carbon prepared from plantain peel is used to adsorb selected heavy metals such as copper, cadmium and chromium. Heavy metals are toxic and may be found in both surface and underground water. Plantain peel which is an agricultural wastes comprising mostly of cellulose materials was activated with three activating agents (0.10M H3PO4, 0.10M NaOH and 0.10M ZnCl2 ), then latter used for the removal of these toxic metals from their aqueous solutions. Activation of plantain peel with 0.10M H3PO4 and 0.10M NaOH solutions resulted to a two-fold increase in the amounts of adsorbed Cd2+, Cr6+ and Cu2+ compared to activation with 0.10M ZnCl2.The effects of varying the particle sizes, the type of activating agents as modifiers, adsorbent dosage, agitation time, agitation speed, pH as well as initial concentration of the metal ions on the adsorption capacity of the activated carbons were determined. The linearization of equilibrium isotherms data for Langmuir and Freundlich models were obeyed over the entire range of the concentration studied, while the metal sorption closely followed Langmuir model and Freundlich model. The Langmuir isotherm has R2 values of 0.9557 for Cd2+, 0.9924 for Cr2+ and 0.9954 for Cu2+ which indicated that the adsorption behaviour was homogenously distributed. The RL value indicated favorability of adsorption capacity by adsorbent since RL value fall within 0 to 1.The characterization by FTIR showed absorbance peaks of aldehyde, amide, alkyl, hydroxyl and carboxylic functional group. Hence, these functional groups are responsible for the adsorption and activation process has an enhanced factor on the adsorption of the selected metals. The optimum conditions for the adsorption of Cd2+, Cr6+ and Cu2+ onto the activated carbon are 2.5 g of the adsorbent dosage of particle size 75 μm, 20.0 mg/dm3 of the adsorbate concentration at 60 min agitation time carried out at 150 rpm agitation speeds. At the optimum conditions the highest percentage of the metal ions adsorbed were Cr6+ (97.2%), followed by Cu2+ (90.2%) and the least was Cd2+ (53.9%).
Description
ADSORPTION OF SELECTED HEAVY METALS ON ACTIVATED CARBON PREPARED FROM PLANTAIN (Musa paradisiacaL.) PEEL
BY
IDOWU ELIJAH AGBELE
MSc/SCIEN/07888/2009-2010
A THESIS SUBMITTED TO THE SCHOOL OF POSTGRADUATE STUDIES, AHMADU BELLO UNIVERSITY, ZARIA IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE AWARD OF THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF SCIENCE IN ANALYTICAL CHEMISTRY
DEPARTMENT OF CHEMISTRY
FACULTY OF SCIENCE
AHMADU BELLO UNIVERSITY, ZARIA
NIGERIA.
FEBRUARY, 2015
Keywords
ABSORPTION, SELECTED, CARBON, PLANTAIN