Abstract:A study conducted in the major grazing areas of Uasin Gishu involved twenty-eight (28) soils, twenty-eight (28) forage and forty-two (42) serum samples collected in six divisions at different sites. The purpose of the study was to determine the macro-and trace elements in soils, forages and animal serum, and compare to the recommended standards so as to identify those that could be presenting deficiencies in the area. Soils were extracted for available macro-minerals; Sodium (Na), Potassium (K), Calcium (Ca) magnesium (Mg) and trace elements; Iron (Fe), Manganese (Mn), Copper (Cu) and Zinc (Zn; the forage samples were assayed for the same elements plus phosphorus as total concentration on dry matter (DM) basis while blood serum was analyzed for the same forage elements plus molybdenum (Mo). Atomic absorption spectrophotometer (AAS) and UV/visible spectrophotometer were used to analyze the metal elements and molybdenum respectively. Soil and Forage analysis of samples from southern region including Kesses and Ainabkoi revealed lower levels in both macro and trace elements analyzed. Serum samples from grazing areas situated in southern region revealed similar deficiencies in most minerals. The factors responsible for the variations as soil pH, forage species and cattle breed were investigated using correlation analysis.
Rapid industrial development associatedwith production of toxic wastes, especially heavy metals, has led to anurgent need of creating new sorption materials to remove these wastes from water supplies. This study aimed atdetermining the effectiveness of as-prepared CNT-IPSF/Fe 3 O 4 nanocomposites in removal of lead(II) ionsfrom contaminated water. Carbon nanotubes prepared by CVD exhibited fine threads with average internal diameters of 40-50 nm while magnetite silica NPs had cubic spinel structure; due to the strongest reflection from the (311) plane. The silica coated magnetite had magnetization value of 2.5 emu/g while the polysulfonecontributed towards well packed and uniform structure depicting higher surface area suitable in adsorption studies. The magnetite silica NPs had very intense peaks, indicating the ultra-fine nature and small crystallite size of the particles. The peaks indexed as planes (220), (311), (400), (422), (511) and (440) corresponded to a cubic unit cell, characteristic of a cubic spinel structure while crystallite size measurements were determined as 22.4 nm from the strongest reflection of the (311) peak, using the Scherrer approximation. Optimization of parameters for Pb(II) ions removal gave optimum conditions of adsorbent dose (0.05 g), contact time (60 mins) and pH5 which were set constant in further analysis. Kinetics for adsorption of Pb(II) ions fitted well with pseudo second order model with highest correlation coefficient values of >0.9 while the adsorption process gave best fit with Freundlich isotherms.Desorption efficiencies (%) for Pb(II) ions of above 50%confirms the reliability of the desorption test in the reusability of the magnetoresponsive CNT-IPSF/Fe 3 O 4 nanocomposite fabricated. Desorption of the Pb(II) ions using HNO 3 made the developed adsorbent a viable alternative to the common adsorbents available for treatment of wastewater with heavy metal ions. The nanocomposites showed 69 % for Pb(II) ions removal from wastewater compared to 54% Pb(II) ions removal for activated carbon used as standard adsorbent.
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