Application of magnetic biochar in removal of Cadmium and Lead heavy metals from their aqueous solutions
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Date
2021-11
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G.B. Pant University of Agriculture and Technology, Pantnagar - 263145 (Uttarakhand)
Abstract
Heavy metals toxicity in water is a major risk to public health and environment. Discharge of heavy metals originates from anthropogenic activities and once these metals enter in the water, it becomes polluted and unsuitable for drinking purpose. Lead and Cadmium are such two heavy metals which pose a serious threat to the human health. In the current research, adsorption method is proposed to remove the mentioned heavy metals from water using magnetic biochar. Various ratios of biochar and magnetite were mixed with TES in distilled water in an incubator shaker to prepare magnetic bio-composite. Various characterization techniques viz. FTIR, XRD and AAS were employed to study the physical and chemical properties of the composite and synthetic solutions of Pb and Cd. XRD analysis has confirmed the synthesis of magnetite nanoparticles. Presence of hydroxyl, carboxylate and alkane functional groups in the FTIR spectra of biochar gave an evidence for its hydrophilic nature and availability of anchoring sites for the NPs. Fe-O stretching and FeOOH stretching vibrations in case of magnetic biochar suggested the attachment of magnetite on biochar. The successful attachment of TES on magnetic biochar was confirmed by the presence of Si-O-C bond and Si-O-Fe stretching. The significant shift and decreased intensity of –NH2 group in FTIR spectrum of metal loaded magnetic biocomposite was a sign of complexation of metal ion with amine functional group. In batch experiment, adsorption characteristics of both Pb(II) and Cd(II) were investigated. It has been observed that magnetic biochar (MBC) shows very good adsorption behaviour at basic pH as maximum 99% heavy metal removal was observed and the process of heavy metal removal was instantaneous and efficient. Pseudo second order equation was best fitted kinetic model. The adsorption isotherm was better fitted by the Langmuir equation. The combination of various attractive properties like simple magnetic separation, lowcost, environmental friendly nature and good adsorption performance enable MBC application in lead and cadmium metals removal from drinking water.