Chromatographic separation of Pb(II), Cr(II), Cd(II), Ni(II) and Fe(III) in aqueous solutions using Lanchocarpus laxiflorus plant leaves (LLL)

J.T. Barminas, B. A. Aliyu, A.

Abstract

This work assesses the potential of an adsorptive material LLL, for the separation of metal ions in aqueous solution. The adsorption behavior of LLL for lead, chromium, cadmium, nickel and iron ions was investigated. The effect of pH, initial concentration of metal ions, the biomass dose, and contact time on the sorption of each of the metal ions was determined. The result shows that the LLL biomass has a high selectivity for Pb, Cr and Ni with 99.86%, 98.75% and 99.49% at pH 5, 6 and 7 respectively. For cadmium the sorption capacity was low compared to Pb, Cr and Ni, While Fe (III) was slightly extracted (61%) at pH 4. The recovery of the metal ions is around 98% using 1M HNO3 acid as the best eluent.