POTENTIAL USE OF LEAF BIOMASS, ARAUCARIA HETEROPHYLLA FOR REMOVAL OF Pb⁺²

Abstract

The present investigation attempt to analyze the biosorption behavior of novel biosorbent, Araucaria heterophylla (green plant) biomass, for removal of Pb⁺² from solution as the function of initial metal ion concentration, pH, temperature, sorbent dosage and biomass particle size. The maximum biosorption was found to be 95.12% at pH 5 and biosorption capacity (q_e) of Cd⁺² is 9.643 mg/g. The Langmuir and Freundlich equilibrium adsorption isotherms were studied and observed that Freundlich model is best fit than the Langmuir model with correlation coefficient of 0.9927. Kinetic studies indicated that the biosorption process of Cd⁺² followed well pseudo second order model with R² 0.999. The process is exothermic and, spontaneous. The chemical functional groups –OH, CH₂ stretching vibrations, C˭O of alcohol, C˭O of amide, P˭O stretching vibrations, –CH, were involved in the process. The XRD pattern of the A. heterophylla was found to be mostly amorphous in nature. The SEM studies showed Pb⁺² biosorption on selective grains of the biosorbent. It was concluded that A. heterophylla leaf powder can be used as an effective, low cost, and environmentally friendly biosorbent for the removal of Pb⁺² from aqueous solution.

KEY WORDS::

• Araucaria heterophylla
• Hall separation factor (R_L)
• Gibbs free energy change
• kinetic
• isotherms
• characterization

ACKNOWLEDGMENT

One of the authors Mrs. B. Sarada is thankful to UGC SAP/DSA Phase-III for permission to use the AAS. K. Kishore Kumar is thankful to University Grants Commission, Delhi for providing financial support.