Physicochemical characterization for different types of soil used in Heavy metals removal from aqueous solution

• Main Author: Ramli, Mohd Syukri
• Format: Thesis
• Language: English
• Published: 2020
• Subjects: R Medicine
• Online Access: http://eprints.usm.my/49081/1/TESIS-MOHD%20SYUKRI%20RAMLI%20%28P-SKM0052_19%29--24%20pages.pdf; http://eprints.usm.my/49081/

Heavy metals are one of the main contributors to water pollution worldwide. The adsorption study using soil known to be a promising technique to remove heavy metals from aqueous solution. The previous study claimed that these three types of soil (red-earth, clay and sandy soil) have successfully adsorbed considerable quantities of heavy metals such as lead (Pb) and cadmium (Cd) ions from aqueous solution. Thus, this study intended to examine the physicochemical characteristics of three types of soils (red-earth, clay and sandy) which acted as adsorbents material to remove the heavy metals from aqueous solution. All soil sample types were characterized and analyzed using Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscope- Energy Dispersion X-ray (FESEM-EDX), Fourier Transform Infra-Red (FTIR) and Brunauer, Emmett and Teller (BET). FESEM micrographs demonstrated different structural images of all soil samples. The highest percentage amount of metal (Fe) was sandy soil (10.72%) followed by clay soil (4.38%), and red earth soil (3.87%) was detected using EDX analysis. These proved that all the samples have Fe metal that facilitates the removal of heavy metals. FTIR spectra confirmed the presence of silica, hydroxyl and carboxyl functional groups in all types of soil. The BET data revealed that the pore size of sandy and clay were smaller than redearth soil. A smaller pore size serves a larger surface area that leads to a successful adsorption study. The only surface area of sandy soil could be calculated using the BET analysis. The finding of this study is in mutual agreement with the previous research which concluded that the physical features of sandy soil yielded a higher percentage of heavy metal removal compared to red-earth and clay soil.