The Atrazine Removal with the Polyaniline Coated Rice Husk as a Cheap Adsorbent

Abstract

One of the most studied removal processes for pesticides in the literature is adsorption. Although the adsorption process provides very high treatment efficiencies in the removal of many pollutants through batch processes, the cost of the adsorbent consumed is the most important factor limiting the use of the process. In recent years, scientists have focused on composite adsorbents to reduce the costs of the process. In this study, a composite of rice husk (RH) (is a very cheap natural product) and polyaniline (PANI; it has a high cost and provides high treatment efficiency), was produced and its potential as an adsorbent in removal of atrazine was investigated. Within the scope of the study, the effects of operation time (0-480 min), initial pH (3.5-9.5), initial atrazine concentration (2-25 mg/L), and PANI/RH amount (0-1.6 g) on treatment efficiency were examined. The optimum treatment efficiency for atrazine (25 mg/L) was found as 58.3% under 120 min., 5.4 of pH and 1.g/50 ml of adsorbent dosage, and at this condition adsorption capacities (qt) was calculated as 0.58 mg/g. Furthermore, when initial atrazine concentration was raised from 2 to 25 mg/L, the removal efficiencies decreased from 81.1 to 60.4 % but the adsorption capacities (qt) increased from 0.067 to 0.629 mg/g.