Eugenia Jambolana Lam. Seed as an Adsorbent: Evaluation of Adsorptive Characteristics for Cr (VI) from Aqueous Solution

Abstract

Biosorption is one of the most useful techniques for environmental remediation especially for heavy metal pollution. Kinetics of the biosorption is of great significance to evaluate the performance of a given adsorbent and gain insight into the underlying mechanisms. Presently, the removal of chromium (VI) from aqueous solutions using Eugenia jambolana Lam. (commonly known as Jamun) seed investigated. Adsorption study were performed in batch adsorption techniques to evaluate various parameters like pH of the solution, time of contact between adsorbent and adsorbate, dose of adsorbent, chromium ion concentration and solution temperature. The adsorption of Cr(VI) increased with dose of adsorbent and reached maximum at 1.0g/ 100mL at pH 6. Kinetic models like pseudo first and second-order were used to correlate the adsorption data. For both kinetic models, kinetic constants were computed and the second-order rate expression fitted well with high correlation coefficient. Two isotherm models, namely; Freundlich and Langmuir isotherm were used to know adsorption mechanism and Langmuir correlated the data well inferring a monolayer adsorption at the binding sites on the surface of the adsorbent. It may be concluded that Eugenia jambolana Lam. seed can be used as an efficient adsorbent for removing Cr (VI) from aqueous solutions.