A positive correlation has been reported recently among the number of Chronic Kidney Disease of Unknown Etiology (CKDu) patients and the levels of groundwater hardness.Hence, the need for a low cost and a simple domestic process to reduce the hardness of potable water is identified to improve living standards of low-income communities in these disease affected areas. Biochar has emerged as a low cost adsorbent for water treatment, because of its abundance and cost-effectiveness. This study was aimed to evaluate the ability of natural coconut vinegar, in activating Leucaena leucocephala wood biochar to be used in calcium ion (Ca 2+ ) removal from potable water. Column tests showed a 1.7 fold increase of Ca 2+ adsorption capacity and a 7 fold increase of Ca 2+ retaining capacity upon the vinegar treatment. Batch studies matched with both Langmuir (R 2 = 0.9761) and Freundlich (R 2 = 0.9785) isotherm models. Ca 2+ amount in solutions were measured using flame photometry. Ca 2+ adsorption capacities of raw biochar and activated biochar determined by column tests ranged from 3.10-3.82 mg/g and 5.27-6.68 mg/g respectively while Ca 2+ retaining capacities ranged from 0.16-0.22 mg/g and 1.28-1.4 mg/g respectively. Fourier transform infrared spectra, suggests hydration of the C-O-C bridges of the biochar surface introducing new -O-H groups and possible introduction of carbonyl/ ester/carboxylic functional groups to the biochar surface upon vinegar treatment.According to scanning electron microscopy porosity of the biochar remained stable after the vinegar treatment.
This study intends to fill an essential knowledge gap in the field of environmental information in Sri Lanka, by providing a reliable data bank supporting the information of existing chemical species of two important components, well water and soil. Further, this study would provide reference information for future work and aid in explaining the changes that would occur due to changes in the chemical composition of the environment.Thalawathuhenpita North Grama Niladhari division was selected as the initial site of study and sampling was done from 23 sites, where two representative samples of each soil and well water were collected from each site. This study investigates the well water quality parameters such as pH determined by a pH meter, hardness and Calcium content using complexometric titrations, nitrate content using a spectrometric analysis, Iron content using a colorimetric analysis, and soil quality parameters such as active pH using a pH meter, water-soluble and exchangeable cations(Na + ,Ca 2+ ,K + )using a flame photometer and complexometric titration, organic matter content using a redox titration, iron content and nitrate content as mentioned above. The readings were duplicated and reported as means ± standard deviation, and contour maps were produced using Surfer ® (Golden Software, LLC).Maps depict the scope of variation of the determined parameters within the selected area and highlight the point that it is crucial to monitor the environmental resources chemically in a regular manner to address the environmental problems that may occur in the future.
Aluminium is the most abundant metal in the earth’s crust. In soil, aluminum is mainly found in the mineral form as aluminosilicates and aluminum oxides and this aluminium is in stable inactive form. In addition, Al can be found as precipitates or in very minute quantities appear in soluble forms such as conjugated organic and inorganic, and molecular ions. Aluminium mobility and as a consequence aluminium toxicity, is mainly restricted to acid environments. Depending on the soil pH these mobile forms are capable of influencing biological systems. Aluminium has low mobility under most environmental conditions. However, below a pH of 4.0 its solubility increases and aluminium is released from silicate rocks under such acidic conditions. The levels of dissolved aluminium in natural groundwater samples are generally low, probably due to its low solubility at neutral pH values. Release of acids by anthropogenic activities influence the soil acidity levels. Therefore, elevated levels of aluminium have been found in acidified soil solutions and surface waters causing harmful effects to living organisms. The present study was aimed at proving the above theoretical hypothesis and existence of a possible relationship between soil salinity and soil acidity on the concentration of mobile aluminium ions in samples obtained during the location surveys. Samples were collected from selected locations in Ratnapura, Rathupaswala, Marawila, Mabima and Muthurajawela to get different soil types and the survey results were used to test the hypothetical relationship between the presence of the stated factors, and the existence of a high concentration of mobile aluminium in the soil water samples. The analysis covered basic parameters such as soil pH, soil cation exchange capacity (CEC), soil organic matter, soil electrical conductivity and the influence of the concentration of mobile aluminium at different pH and Na+ concentration levels. The total aluminium concentration in the soil was assayed by digesting samples with strong acid. Concentration of mobile aluminium in soil samples were analyzed using the flame atomic absorption spectrophotometry. The results indicated that there is no clear relationship between mobile aluminium and total aluminium in the soil. It was also found that the concentration of mobile aluminium released increased with decrease in soil pH and that the increase was marked when the pH of soil water was less than 4.0. Highest mobile aluminium release to the soil solution was found from Mabima sites [at pH 5.00 was 0.54 (±0.06) mg kg-1 of dry soil, at pH 0.00 was 90.12 (±7.01) mg kg-1] and least in samples from Marawila sites [at pH 5.00 was 0.48 (±0.03) mg kg-1, at pH 0.00 was 4.52 (±0.36) mg kg-1]. This result confirmed that there is an effect of soil acidity on the concentration of mobile aluminium in the soil but with no direct correlation. Results also showed that the concentration of mobile aluminium released increased with increasing soil salinity and that the increase was rapid when the Na+ ion concentration was higher than 2.0 %. Highest mobile aluminium release to the soil solution was found from Muthurajawela sites [Na+ 1.0% = lower than detection limit, Na+ 5.0% = 9.87 (±0.67) mg kg-1] and least found from Marawila sites [Na+1.0% = lower than detection limit, Na+ 5.0% = 2.24 (±0.23) mg kg-1] confirming the effect of soil salinity on the concentration of mobile aluminium in the soil. The study also points towards the future opportunities for research to confirm these findings using wider samples and employing more vigorous research methodologies.
Boron containing alloy steels are mainly used in constructional, automotive and many other applications. The presence of even trace amounts of boron affects greatly on the properties of steel such as hardness and machinability. Therefore, it is important to determine it accurately and precisely in the manufacture of these alloys. Due to the drawbacks of common advanced techniques such as Atomic Absorption Spectroscopy (AAS), Inductively Coupled Plasma-Atomic Emission Spectroscopy (ICP-AES), the universally accepted method for determination of boron in steel is the spectrophotometric method using curcumin as an auxiliary agent. Although curcumin is the most sensitive spectrophotometric reagent for the above analysis, synthetic curcumin is relatively expensive and it tends to degrade rapidly once it is exposed to air. Furthermore this method is time consuming. Therefore, this study was carried out in order to improve and optimize the available spectroscopic method and to investigate the possibility of using natural curcumin extracted from turmeric in the above analysis. The results of the study implied that natural curcumin extracted and purified from turmeric can be used as accurately and precisely as synthetic curcumin in the analysis of boron in steel. A boron-steel alloy sample found to be containing 0.26±0.01 percent of boron with synthetic curcumin gave a concentration of 0.25±0.00 percent of boron with natural curcumin, indicating no significant difference in the determination. A steel sample found to be containing 0.27±0.01 percent of boron with filter paper ashing step gave a concentration of 0.26±0.01 percent of boron without filter paper ashing step indicating no significant difference. Altering the refluxing step of current procedure significantly changes the concentration of boron indicating that the refluxing step cannot be optimized further.
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