Removal of Heavy Metals from Aqueous Solution Using a Sol-Gel Derived Strontium Ferrite Nanoparticle

Ng, Kuan Aeng (2020) Removal of Heavy Metals from Aqueous Solution Using a Sol-Gel Derived Strontium Ferrite Nanoparticle. Final Year Project (Bachelor), Tunku Abdul Rahman University College.

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Abstract

Heavy metal pollution has become serious nowadays. Thus, the purpose of this project is to remove heavy metal from aqueous solution using a sol-gel derived strontium ferrite nanoparticles. Sol-gel process is an inexpensive and high product yield method. The product synthesised were analysed by EDX and SEM to determine the composition and surface structure. Adsorption properties of strontium ferrite towards the metal ions were studied by examining the effect of pH, adsorbent dosage, contact time and the initial concentration of the metal solution on the percentage removal of metal ions. The effect of pH was determined within pH range of 2-7. Optimise pH for Pb(ll) was at pH6 and Cu(ll) was at pH7. Lower qe was be obtained at smaller pH and insoluble metal hydroxide was formed at higher pH. The optimum dosage of strontium ferrite was 0.8g in 0.3L solution. Lower dosage resulted in incomplete adsorption, while at higher dosage, the adsorbent was highly in excess. Adsorption occurred fast initially, but then becomes slow and gradual as the process continued and finally reached equilibrium. Isotherms of strontium ferrites fit Langmuir isotherms models better, by having R2 value of 0.9774 compared to Freundlich isotherms model with R2= 0.8078. The maximum adsorption capacity calculated from Langmuir isotherm models was 81.301mg/g. The constant n value was 2.191, which indicated that the adsorption was favourable. The R2 value for the kinetic studies of pseudo 2nd order was higher and closer to 1 compared to pseudo 1st order. Besides that, the intra-particle diffusion plot showed three stages in the mechanism during the metal adsorption process.