Terminalia arjuna Bark Biosorbent for Efficient Lead (II) Removal from Synthetic Wastewater

Aim: Heavy metal such as lead ions is toxic and its entry in water environment is a threat to human as well as aquatic life. Plant based adsorbents have attracted a great attention as ecofriendly and low-cost adsorbent. The goal of this study was to prepare adsorbent from Terminalia arjuna bark using chemicals named hydrochloride followed by sodium hydroxide for lead ions removal.

Study Design: The research is experimental in nature.

Place and Duration of Study: This research was conducted in Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at CCSHAU, Hisar in year 2022-23.

Methodology: The functionality, surface morphology, and elemental analysis of that biosorbent was analysed by FTIR, FE-SEM with EDX respectively. The bark samples were treated with 400 mL of 0.1 M hydrochloride and 400 mL of 0.01 M sodium hydroxide, respectively, before being used as an adsorbent. Batch studies were done for biosorption of heavy metal ions. The maximum biosorption capacity of lead ions were optimized by varying the pH (2-8), lead ions concentration (10- 100 mg/L), biosorbent dose (0.01-0.04 g/50mL), and contact time (10–60 minutes).

Results: The maximum removal efficiency of about 71% was obtained at 6 pH having 0.03g of biosorbent at 27⁰C for 60 minutes. The Freundlich adsorption isotherms and pseudo first order kinetics models were the most suitable for the biosorption of lead ions and the maximum adsorption capacity was 125 mgg-1 at optimized time 60 minutes.

Conclusion: The finding indicated that Terminalia arjuna bark based biosorbents would potentially be an inexpensive and environment friendly for lead ions removal from water environment.