Adsorption of Cr6+ Onto Unmodified and Hydrochloric Acid Modified African Nutmeg Pod (Monodora myristica) from Aqueous Solution

Abstract

The removal of Cr6+ from aqueous solution using unmodified and hydrochloric modified African nutmeg pod was studied. The effects of particle size, pH and initial metal ions concentration adsorbed were investigated. The amount of metal ion adsorbed increased as the initial metal ion concentration increased and also decreased at low pH of 2 for both modified and unmodified African nutmeg pod. 400 µm and 250 µm were the optimum particle sizes for both modified and unmodified African nutmeg pod respectively, values given as 75.8 mg/g for the modified and 93.39 mg/g for the unmodified. Generally, it was observed that the unmodified African nutmeg pod showed greater adsorption capacity than the modified African nutmeg pod. The equilibrium experimental data were examined via Langmuir and Freundlich isotherm models. Freundlich isotherm model gave the best fit for the data in both unmodified and modified African nutmeg pod based on the correlation coefficients (R2 values) gotten. The results of the study showed that the African nutmeg pod is efficient for the removal of Cr6+ from aqueous solutions especially when unmodified.