Preparation and Application of a Novel Functionalized Coconut Coir Pith as a Recyclable Adsorbent for Phosphate Removal

Abstract

This study was to develop a new adsorbent, Iron(III) complex of an amino-functionalized polyacrylamide-grafted coconut coir pith (CP), a lignocellulosic residue, for the removal of phosphate from water and wastewater. The kinetics of adsorption follows a pseudo-second-order model. The equilibrium sorption capacity of 96.31 mg/g was determined at 30°C from the Langmuir isotherm equation. Complete removal of 16.4 mg/L phosphate in 1 L of fertilizer industry wastewater was achieved by 1.5 g/L AM-Fe-PGCP at pH 6.0. The acid treatment (0.1 M HCl) and re-introduction of Fe³⁺ lead to a reactivation of the spent adsorbent and can be reused through many cycles of water treatment and regeneration without any loss in the adsorption capacity.

Keywords:

• Adsorption isotherm
• coir pith
• graft copolymerization
• phosphate
• wastewater

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The authors are thankful to the Head, Department of Chemistry, University of Kerala, for providing research facilities and Mr. S. Rijith wishes to express his sincere thanks to the University Grant Commission, New Delhi for the financial support in the form of a Research Fellowship to carry out this work.