Abstract
The study explores the efficacy of Ficus religiosa leaf powder (FRLP) as an effective adsorbent for the abatement of Nickel (73.89%) from water bodies. Morphological changes observed in the scanning electron micrograph of treated biomass confirmed the phenomenon of biosorption and data of metal ion fitted well in Langmuir isotherm model indicating monolayer sorption. Fourier Transform Infra Red (FTIR) spectrometry analysis indicated that amino acid-metal interaction appears to be responsible for the metal binding. Desorption studies showed that the ease of metal ion recovery from metal-loaded biomass by the different eluents is of the order Nitric acid (0.05M) > Citric acid (0.5 M) > Sodium hydroxide (0.05M) > distilled water. The sorption capacity of regenerated biomass remained almost constant up to three cycles of sorption process. The successful application of this easily abundant agricultural waste FRLP, as a biosorbent has potential for a low technological pretreatment step, prior to economically non-viable high-tech chemical treatments for the removal of Ni (II) from water bodies.
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