Abstract
The peel of the edible fruit, Artocarpus nobilis, a plant endemic to Sri Lanka, shows remarkable adsorption capabilities toward Ni(II), a heavy metal ion. Removal efficiency of 50% obtained with air-dried particles (0.710 mm < d < 1.0 mm) of the above waste material under both static and dynamic conditions. It is enhanced to 71% after optimization of shaking time, settling time and processed temperature within a solution pH range of 4.0–7.0. Application of data on linearized Langmuir isotherm model shows a higher regression coefficient of 0.994, as compared to that of the Freundlich model, leading to the maximum adsorption capacity of 12,048 mg kg−1. The amount of biosorption of Ni(II) at equilibrium determined from the pseudo-first-order model is 2259 mg kg−1 which is in good agreement with the experimental value of 2348 mg kg−1. Removal efficiency further increases under dynamic conditions up to 93% by optimizing the packing bed height and flow rate. Application of dynamic adsorption models, namely Thomas, Adams–Bohart and Yoon–Nelson, shows attractive results with high regression coefficients. It is conclusively demonstrated that the peel of Artocarpus nobilis fruit can be used as an effective biosorbent for the removal of Ni(II) from wastewater.
Highlights
Expansion of industrial activities over the past few decades has contributed to increased levels of metallic constituents in the aquatic environment (Qaiser et al 2009)
The bands at 1243, 1733 and 2850 cm−1 indicate the presence of carboxylic acid derivatives which are very important for complexation with heavy metal ions
It is assumed that no ion other than protons in the medium binds to the biosorbent during surface titrations
Summary
Expansion of industrial activities over the past few decades has contributed to increased levels of metallic constituents in the aquatic environment (Qaiser et al 2009). Bivalent metal ions, such as Cu(II), Ni(II) and Cd(II), and their compounds commonly found in industrial wastewater would accumulate in fish and other aquatic organisms. These metal ions are transferred to higher animals through food chain by bioaccumulation, bioconcentration and biomagnification (Hossain et al 2014).
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