Author : jibrin Noah Akoji, Yisa Jonathan, Okafor Joseph Onyebuchi and Mann Abdullahi

The physicochemical properties and adsorption performance of activated carbon prepared from sandal fruits for the removal of lead and copper from aqueous solution was investigated using batch adsorption process. The influence of important parameters like initial metal concentration, temperature, pH, adsorbent dosage and contact time were studied. The result indicated that adsorption capacity increased with increase in the initial metal concentration, pH, adsorbent dosage and contact time up to an equilibrium point when adsorption stabilizes or decrease with further change in the parameters. The sorption process either decreases with increased temperature or does not change with changed in temperature. FTIR analysis results of the adsorbent includes; 3250-3400 cm-1; 1640-1670 cm-1; 1000-1260 cm-1 which revealed the presence of functional groups such as the carboxylic acid or alcoholic O-H bond stretching, amine (N-H) bond stretching, C=O bond of carbonyl or amide groups, C-O and O-H bond stretching of alcohol and ethers. The surface area, iodine number, bulk density, particle density, ash content and porosity of the adsorbent determined were; 649.5m2/g, 614.7 mg/g, 0.921g/cm3, 0.72g/cm3 and 26.4% respectively The equilibrium sorption data proved that the process fit well into Freundlich better than Langmuir isotherm model as indicated with high correlation coefficients high ˃ 0.95 . The results obtained in this study indicated the high adsorption ability of sandal fruit for Pb and Cu, proving it to be excellent biosorbent.

Keywords: batch adsorption, sandal fruit, lead, copper, removal, adsorption, isotherms, surface area, pollutants, concentration

Article published in International Journal of Current Engineering and Technology, Vol.5, No.4 (Aug-2015)