POTENTIAL BIOSORBENT DERIVED FROM PHOENIX DACTYLIFERA FOR THE REMOVAL OF HEAVY METALS FROM THE AQUEOUS SOLUTIONR. KAVITHA SARASWATHI, ANITHA A. AND VINITHA U.Abstract Many metals are termed as heavy metals because they are the toxic elements that persist in environment for decades and will not degrade naturally. Inappropriate liberation of heavy metals through industrial discharge such as Mercury, Lead, cadmium, copper, nickel, cobalt and zinc to the environment could inflict harsh effects to both personal and to the environment. Most of the industrial effluent will contain Hg (II), Pb (II) that are highly toxic in nature. Also high concentrations of Co (II) (generally not considered as pollutant as it is essential metal for plants) released from various industries are highly poisonous. In the present study, the date seed powder was used as a potential biosorbent to remove Hg, Pb and Co from the aqueous solutions was investigated. The adsorption ability of the date seed powder was examined through batch absorption studies. The nano-characterization studies of raw date seeds as well as the respective heavy metal absorbed date seed powder were done through FTIR and SEM-EDX analysis. The Fourier Transform Infrared Spectrometer (FTIR) spectra illustrated the absorption of heavy metals in the date seed since there were changes in the raw and absorbed sample. The Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) results allowed concluding the structural deviations of the date seed powder and the Energy Dispersive X-ray spectrometer (EDX) graph showed the absorbed sample by revealing the elemental composition of the samples. The studies revealed that the date seeds can be potential biosorbent for the removal of heavy metal from the samples. |