Heavy-metal pollution
is a persevering environmental
menace, which
demands the necessity of its removal by green and ecofriendly adsorbents.
To combat this problem, discarded plant biomass can be used as an
efficient substitute. Herein, a comparative study has been highlighted
for the removal of Pb2+ ions using Euryale
ferox Salisbury seed coat and its activated carbon,
which is prepared by a first-time-reported activating agent that is
a novel and non-hazardous bioresource. The batch investigation revealed
a 99.9% removal efficiency of Pb(II) by the activated carbon compared
to Euryale ferox Salisbury seed coat,
which shows only an 89.5% removal efficiency at neutral pH. The adsorption
mechanism is mainly a multilayered process, which involves electrostatic,
van der Waals, and hydrogen bonding interactions. The adsorption equilibrium,
kinetic, and thermodynamic studies were examined for the biosorbents,
which revealed the adsorption process to be feasible, spontaneous,
and exothermic with both physisorption and chemisorption adsorption
mechanisms. The desorption study asserted the reusability of both
the biosorbents to a maximum of three cycles.
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