Abstract

Pistachios seed shell carbon and commercially activated carbon was used for the removal of heavy metals from industrial wastewater have been studied. Pista seed shell carbon is a natural, low cost and eco-friendly adsorbent. Pistachios seed shell carbon was used for the removal of Cr(VI) from synthetic water. The carbon characteristics was determined by moisture content, ash content, matter soluble in both water and acid, range of pH, decolourising power, iron content, ion exchange capacity and zero point charge. The adsorbents were tested by using batch experiments under controlled conditions. The effect of various experimental parameters were examined such as equilibrium time, function of pH, adsorbent dose, concentration, temperature, agitation speed, various adsorbent size were investigated. The obtained equilibrium adsorption data is fitted to the linear forms of Freundlich, Langmuir, Temkin adsorption isotherms. The carbon was characterized by x-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier transform-infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) before and after adsorption. These results indicate that PSSC is a very good adsorbent than CAC and it can be used for the development of highly efficient adsorbent for the separation of heavy metals from synthetic water.

Keywords

Adsorption, Characterization, Pistachios seed shell carbon, Langmuir isotherm, Freundlich isotherm