Pollution Research Paper

Vol.30, Issue 4, 2011; Page No.(489-493)

ENHANCING METAL ADSORPTION POTENTIAL OF NEEM SAWDUST THROUGH SONICATION IN MIXTURE ACID MEDIUM

Arumugam, V. Ponnusami

Abstract

Over the few years, adsorption has been projected as an effective wastewater treatment technology by many researchers across the globe owing to its inherent advantages. Thus, improving adsorption potential of known adsorbents is need of the hour. Power of sonication can be exploited to create fine particles with porous surface and hence enhance uptake capacity of an adsorbent. In this work, we demonstrate the application of sonication in a mixture acid medium to enhance the adsorption potential of neem sawdust. While sonic cavitations developed cracks on the surface of neem sawdust, mixture acid removed lignin and pectin from neem sawdust making it amenable to sonication. Changes in morphology and particle size distribution achieved due to sonication were confirmed with SEM and PSD respectively. Nickel adsorption capacities of neem sawdust samples with and without sonic treatment were estimated at various levels of initial nickel concentrations. The paired t confidence interval and test procedures were employed to determine if the mean difference between the paired observations was different from zero. The 95% confidence interval (-8.42, -5.4) confirm that the mean difference between the uptake capacities of two sawdust samples was different from zero. Apart from this, Langmuir monolayer adsorption potential of neem sawdust was found to be 13.92 and 22.76 mg/g before and after sonication respectively. This confirms that sawdust adsorption capacity of neem sawdust increased by 63.39% after sonication in mixture acid medium.

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