Fairuz, Farah Shahirah Mohd
(2023)
Removal of Arsenic from Aqueous Solution by Various Natural Soil-Based Adsorbents.
Masters thesis, Universiti Sains Malaysia.
Abstract
Rapid industrialization, mining and agricultural activities lead to the release of
contaminants such as arsenic (As) into the water sources that causes adverse effect to
living organism. Thus, the application of effective and efficient removal method is
crucial. The objective of the study is to apply the adsorption method by utilizing
natural soil-based adsorbents including red, clay, sandy and black soil for removal of
arsenic from aqueous solution. This study involved the characterisation of heavy metal
content and physicochemical characteristic of soil adsorbents, followed by batch
adsorption process and the study of adsorption model and mechanism. The results for
concentration of arsenic in all soil adsorbents were lower than the permissible limit
stated by European United (EU) and mean concentration of iron (Fe) observed to be
higher in red soil compared to in other soil samples. For the physicochemical
characterisation analysis, red soil has highest number of functional group, content of
Fe based minerals, surface area and pore volume with the smallest particle size. From
this study, the optimum removal conditions of arsenic from aqueous solution were 2.2
g/50 mL dosage of adsorbents for 60 minutes of contact time at pH of 5.5±0.5 and
temperature of 40°C. The adsorption capability and efficiency of soil adsorbent in
removing arsenic from aqueous solution were red soil> clay soil> sandy soil> black
soil. The kinetic, isotherm and thermodynamic model showed that the mechanism of
adsorption of arsenic was a chemisorption, non-spontaneous and endothermic process.
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