Characterization of pulverized Marula seed husk and its potential for the sequestration of methylene blue from aqueous solution

• Published in: BMC chemistry Vol. 13; no. 1; pp. 10 - 14
• Main Authors: Edokpayi, Joshua N., Ndlovu, Stanley S., Odiyo, John O.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Cham Springer International Publishing 30-01-2019; Springer Nature B.V; BMC
• Subjects: Adsorption; Agricultural wastes; Aqueous solutions; Carbonyls; Chemistry; Chemistry and Materials Science; Chemistry/Food Science; Decontamination; Dyes; Enthalpy; Environmental and Energy Chemistry; Equilibrium; Free energy; Functional groups; Gibbs free energy; Kinetics; Low concentrations; Marula seed husk; Methylene blue; Organic chemistry; Pollutants; Process parameters; Reaction kinetics; Research Article; Surface water; Thermodynamics; Water chemistry; Thermodynamics; Marula seed husk; Kinetics; Adsorption; Equilibrium; Methylene blue
• ISSN: 2661-801X; 2661-801X
• DOI: 10.1186/s13065-019-0530-x

Dyes are ranked as an important class of pollutants which affect the aesthetic property of the environment when present even in very low concentrations. This study was carried out to explore the potential use of an agricultural waste (Marula seed husk) to decontaminate methylene blue (MB) from aqueous solution. The effect of change in water chemistry was also examined. The influence of basic adsorption parameters such as contact time, temperature, dosage, pH and particle size on the efficiency of adsorption were investigated. Langmuir and Freundlich isotherms were used to describe the equilibrium data while Pseudo first, second order and Elovich kinetic models were used to evaluate the kinetics of the adsorption process. Thermodynamic parameters such as change in enthalpy (ΔH°), entropy (ΔS°) and Gibbs free energy (ΔG°) were evaluated. Natural surface water showed higher MB removal efficiency than de-ionized water. The sorption process was favored more in alkaline pH range (7–10). The dye adsorption process was found to be endothermic, while Δ
G
° was negative implying that the reaction is spontaneous. Functional group analyses on the adsorbent showed the presence of hydroxyl, carbonyl and carboxyl groups. The Langmuir equilibrium model best described the adsorption process based on the linearized coefficient. The Pseudo second order model best described the kinetics of the reaction.