Paddle cactus (Tacinga palmadora) as potential low-cost adsorbent to treat textile effluents containing crystal violet

Abstract

The powdered biomass of paddle cactus (Tacinga palmadora), a rustic plant of great occurrence in the driest regions of Brazil, was evaluated as a low-cost adsorbent to treat textile effluents containing crystal violet (CV) dye. The powdered paddle cactus (PPC) was mainly composed by lignin and holocellulose, as well as, a variety of functional groups. Best results for CV adsorption were found using an adsorbent dosage of 0.5 g L⁻¹ at solution pH equivalent to 10.0. Fast adsorption kinetics was verified, being the equilibrium reached within 100 min, and the curves were well modeled by the pseudo-first-order model. The isotherms were well-represented by the Langmuir model. The maximum adsorption capacity was 228.74 mg g⁻¹ at 328 K. The estimated thermodynamics parameters were ΔG⁰_T = 328K of –9.08 kJ mol⁻¹, ΔH⁰ of 12.44 kJ mol⁻¹, and ΔS⁰ of 0.065 kJ mol⁻¹ K⁻¹. In addition, PPC was able to treat a simulated textile effluent containing organic and inorganic compounds, reaching 93% of color removal efficiency. These findings show that powdered paddle cactus can be applied as potential low-cost adsorbent to treat textile effluents containing CV.

Keywords:

• Adsorption
• Biomass
• Crystal violet
• Dyes
• Low-cost
• Tacinga palmadora