Determination of adsorption mechanism of Cerbera Odollam as an adsorbent for the removal of heavy metals from industrial wastewater

Abstract

Industrial waste constitutes the major source of various kinds of metal pollution in natural water. Adsorption is one of the alternatives for such cases as an effective purification and separation technique used in industry especially in water and wastewater treatments. Cerbera Odollom (CO) commonly known as the suicide tree, pong–pong and Othalanga, is a plant belonging to the family Apocynaceae. The ability of CO as low cost natural adsorbents was investigated for adsorptive removal of Zn and Cu ions from aqueous solutions. Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) studied was carried out to observe the surface characteristic and porosity of the adsorbent. Various parameters such as temperature, pH, initial concentration and contact time were studied. The percent metal removal was analyzed by using Atomic Absorption Spectromete (AAS) where dosage:1g and the temperature at 303,313 and 323 K. Removal of Zn by using NaOH treated-CO achieved 99.97% and 94.88% of Cu in 210 min of contact time at 323K. Percentage of Zn removal by using raw CO achieved 99.74% and 91.13% for Cu. The adsorption data were better represented by isotherm, kinetic and thermodynamic study. Result indicates that NaOH treated CO is suitable for the removal of Zn compared to Cu from aqueous solution.