Studies on the Removal of Ni(II) from Aqueous Solutions Using Chemically Activated Pistachios Seed Shell and Commercially Available Carbon

Abstract

Abstract:The powder of pistachios seed shell carbon (PSSC) and commercially available (CAC) carbon were used for the removal of Ni(II) from aqueous solutions. Pista seed shell carbon is a natural, low cost and eco friendly adsorbent. Pistachios seed shell carbon was prepared by charring with concentrated HCl and the carbon's characteristics such as moisture content, ash content, matter soluble in both water and acid, pH, decolourising power, iron content and ion exchange capacity were determined. The carbon is characterized by scanning electron microscopy, dispersive energy of spectroscopy (EDS), fourier transform-Infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) before and after adsorption. The adsorbents are tested by using batch experiments under controlled conditions. The effect of various experimental parameters such as equilibration time, pH, adsorbent dose are investigated. The obtained equilibrium adsorption data is fitted to the non-linear forms of Langmuir adsorption isotherm and Freundlich adsorption isotherm. The results obtained indicate that PSSC is a very good adsorbent than CAC and it can be used for the separation of heavy metals from synthetic water.