Abstract
The current work presented here focuses on the remediation of mercury from water using modified low-cost materials. Modified date pits, low cost, minimal pretreatment steps and locally abundant agricultural waste materials were effectively employed as an adsorbent for remediating Hg2+ from aqueous media. Physical and chemical modification were developed such as thermal roasting (RDP), sulfur (SMRDP) and silane (SIMRDP) based modifications. Results showed that maximum adsorption by RDP was at pH 6, AC and both modifications was at pH 4. Furthermore, RDP has exothermic adsorption mechanism while AC, SMRDP, and SIMRDP have endothermic. All adsorbents except SIMRDP have spontaneous adsorption process. SEM analysis showed that the surface morphology of RDP was not significantly affected by different treatments while surface of AC was affected. The investigation for good adsorbents for Hg2+ uptake from different anthropogenic sources has been carried out by many investigators worldwide towards having a safe environment. In the current study, the highest Hg2+ adsorption of SMRDP was relatively high compared to other known adsorbents.
Highlights
Date pits as an agricultural waste can be used as effective adsorbents due to their low cost compared to activated carbon and their adsorption potential for pollutants removal
The results showed that D-R model was the best-fit model for roasted date pits (RDP), while the Freundlich model was the best-fit model for sulfur-modified roasted date pits (SMRDP)
Using date pits to remove contaminant from the environment is very beneficial as it is considered as an agricultural waste; by using it, we will apply the concept of sustainable development
Summary
Adsorption especially, using low-cost easy to prepare adsorbents, has been reported as a potential cost-effective technique for remediation of mercury in small concentrations in water. The limitation of the usage of activated carbon is its high cost that increases the need to find an alternative adsorbent to remove mercury from aqueous medium[15]. According to Arias et al.[16], these used methods for the removal of mercury from aqueous medium requires either several steps for the synthesis of the adsorbent material or needs preliminary activation, which in turn leads to poor green technologies or costly technologies. Date pits as an agricultural waste can be used as effective adsorbents due to their low cost compared to activated carbon and their adsorption potential for pollutants removal. To the best of our knowledge, there is no studies that were previously done on the application of date pits in the removal of mercury from aqueous medium
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
