Enhancement of the adsorptive properties of a desert Salsola vermiculata species

Abstract

Heat pretreatment, steam activation and 20% phosphoric acid activation were found to enhance the adsorption capacity of a desert Salsola V ermiculata plant species significantly relative to the inactivated plant and powdered wood carbon 600200 EX 694 as obtained from Belgium. The batch adsorption experiments resulted in a maximum adsorption capacity determined from Langmuir models of up to 476 mg / g for acetic acid, 238 mg / g for copper(II) ions and 144 mg / g for nickel(II) ions, whereas for the inactivated plant they attained values of 53 mg / g, 65 mg / g and 18 mg / g, respectively. The results for the wood carbon were 65 mg / g for acetic acid, 45 mg / g for copper(II) ions and 2.4 mg / g for nickel(II) ions. The Freundlich model was found to provide a better description of copper(II) ion adsorption onto the steam- and chemically-activated plant, whereas nickel(II) ion adsorption processes followed Langmuir behaviour. These results showed that the activated plant could prove to be very useful in removing toxic substances from wastewater.