Adsorption of Mercury by Pterocarpus Anglolensis: Study on Adsorption Isotherms and Kinetics

Abstract

The efficiency of Pterocarpus Anglolensis sawdust, an abundantly available waste product of the timber industry, capacity as an adsorbent for mercury was investigated. A series of batch experiments was carried out with experimental conditions of metal concentration, adsorbent concentration, pH, and contact time being changed. The concentration of the metal ion was deduced using spectrophotometric means. The adsorption efficiency was found to be pH-dependent with pH 4 being the optimum. 90 minutes was found to be the equilibrium time with particle size range 90-124 μm being the most efficient. Maximum adsorption of mercury was evaluated at 80.33 %. The experimental data was best modeled by the Freundlich isotherm and Pseudo second-order kinetic models. The calculated adsorption parameters are Kf = 0.0002 L/mg, bF = 3.0 and k2 = 0.00016 g/μg.min.