Abstract
The aquatic plants Salvinia and Spirodela were used for the removal of chromium and nickel in their synthetic solutions of 1.0–8.0 ppm in the months of August–November 1990 and April–July 1991. The rate of percentage removal of these metal ions was observed to be 56–96 and 18–72% after the first 2 and 14 days of contact time by both aquatic plants for a single group solution of metal ions, respectively, but in the case of the mixed group solution, the removal rate was 35–83 and 10–53%, respectively. The results show that the removal rate decreases with increasing contact time of the aquatic plants. The metal ion concentrations in both aquatic plants after 14 days of contact with feed solutions were analysed in all sets of the experiment and it was observed that the concentration of both the metal ions in the aquatic plants and the biomass growth of the aquatic plants were lower in mixed group solutions than in single group solutions. In the nickel-enriched solution the biomass growth of Salvinia was higher than Spirodela in both seasons. But, in the case of the chromium solution, the growth was higher for Salvinia in the months of August–November 1990 and in April–July 1991 the growth of both aquatic plants was nearly equal. The metal concentration factor was also calculated to evaluate the potential of accumulating metals for both aquatic plants.
Published Version
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