Ability of different oxidation states of iron-coated bamboo charcoal for the adsorption of heavy metals in wastewater / Ayu Nazirah Aman

Environmentalists have been quite concerned about wastewater treatment. The majority of these pollutants in wastewater are hazardous and carcinogenic substances. Therefore, before municipal and industrial effluents are released into the environment, the level of heavy metals must be reduced. Adsorption is the process used to remove heavy metals from wastewater. The substance may be employed as an adsorbent to remove copper pollutants from water. Copper was removed from aqueous solutions using activated carbon synthesized from bamboo waste and treated with iron (BC-Fe). By impregnating it simultaneously in Fe and HNO3 solutions, followed by microwave heating, bamboo charcoal (BC) was transformed into iron-impregnated bamboo charcoal (Fe-BC). Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR), SEM and UV-Vis were used to characterize the composites created with Fe molar concentrations of 1.0 and mol/L. UV-Vis spectroscopy assessed the copper adsorption processes of BC, BC-Fe(ii), and BC-Fe(iii). BC-Fe(iii) demonstrated a good capacity for copper adsorption. Solution pH highly influenced copper adsorption, reaching maximum levels at pH 5.0. For BC-Fe, the maximum amount of Cu could be absorbed by 1.968 mg/g (iii). These findings significantly impact the development of efficient and affordable adsorbents for copper removal from wastewater.