Removal of Color Pollutant from Wastewater Using Different Biosorbents

Abstract

In this study, the Phragmits australis (Phm) and Sawdust (SD) powders were used as biosorbents to remove Rhodamine 6G (R6G) as a cationic dye from wastewater. The surface properties of the biosorbents were evaluated using atomic force microscopy (AFM) and fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) before conducting the adsorption experiments. The batch adsorption method was used to study the effects of various factors, including the amount of Phm and SD powder, adsorption period, initial concentration of adsorbate, temperature, and pH that affected on the adsorption process. The obtained results indicated that the maximum removal percentage R% for R6G dye was found at an adsorbents weight of 0.16g, a concentration of 10 mg/L, an adsorption time of 30 min and a pH of 7 for both SD and Phm. Adsorption isotherms at different temperatures were observed followed L-type, and through the adsorption isotherm models used it was found that the adsorption of R6G dye is better described by Freundlich isotherm (FrI) model. Thermodynamic parameters analysis suggests that the adsorption process is endothermic in nature, spontaneous, occurs with increase in disorder for SD as adsorbent, while for Phm is exothermic occurs with decrease in disorder and the adsorption of R6G dye onto both Phm and SD is physisorption type. The kinetic data were analyzed by pseudo 1^st and pseudo 2^nd models, and it was found its follow a pseudo 2^nd model with correlation coefficients (R² >0.9987and 0.9996) for Phm and SD, respectively. The study revealed that both SD and Phm consider as a potential to be low-cost biosorbents that effectively remove of R6G dye from aqueous solutions.