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Oak (Quercus robur) Acorn Peel as a Low-Cost Adsorbent for Hexavalent Chromium Removal from Aquatic Ecosystems and Industrial Effluents

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Abstract

The efficiency of low-cost, abundantly available local forestry waste, oak (Quercus robur) acorn peel (OP), to remove toxic Cr(VI) from aqueous solutions was studied in a batch system as a function of contact time, adsorbate concentration, adsorbent dosage, and pH. In an equilibrium time of 420 min, the maximum Cr removal by OP at pH 2 and 10 was 100 and 97 %, respectively. The sorption data fitted well with Langmuir adsorption model. Evaluation using Langmuir expression presented a monolayer sorption capacity of 47.39 mg g−1 with an equilibrium sorbent dose of 5 g L−1 and pH 7. Uptake of Cr by OP was described by pseudo-second-order chemisorption model. ICP-OES, LC-ICPMS analysis of the aqueous and solid phases revealed that the mechanism of Cr(VI) removal is by ‘integrated adsorption and reduction’ mechanism. ESEM-EDX and XRD analysis of OP before and after adsorption also confirmed that both adsorption and reduction of Cr(VI) to less toxic Cr3+ forms followed by complexation onto the adsorbent surface contributed to the removal of Cr(VI). Consistent with batch studies, OP effectively removed (>95 %) Cr from the real water samples collected from lake and sea. The results of this study illustrate that OP could be an economical, green, and effective biomaterial for Cr(VI) removal from natural aquatic ecosystems and industrial effluents.

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Acknowledgments

SK thanks the Australian Government, University of South Australia (UniSA), and Cooperative Research Centre for Contamination Assessment and Remediation of the Environment (CRC CARE) for the International Postgraduate Research Scholarship (IPRS) and CRC CARE top-up fellowship during PhD.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Agriculture and Life Science, Gyeongsang National University, Jinju, 660-701, South Korea

    Saranya Kuppusamy & Yong Bok Lee

  2. Centre for Environmental Risk Assessment and Remediation (CERAR), University of South Australia, Mawson Lakes, SA, 5095, Australia

    Saranya Kuppusamy, Mallavarapu Megharaj & Ravi Naidu

  3. Cooperative Research Centre for Contamination Assessment and Remediation of Environment (CRC CARE), PO Box 486, Salisbury South, SA, 5106, Australia

    Saranya Kuppusamy, Palanisami Thavamani, Mallavarapu Megharaj & Ravi Naidu

  4. Global Centre for Environmental Remediation (GCER), Faculty of Science and Information Technology, The University of Newcastle, Callaghan, NSW, 2308, Australia

    Palanisami Thavamani, Mallavarapu Megharaj & Ravi Naidu

  5. Formerly Department of Microbiology, Sri Krishnadevaraya University, Anantapur, 515055, India

    Kadiyala Venkateswarlu

Authors
  1. Saranya Kuppusamy
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  2. Palanisami Thavamani
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  3. Mallavarapu Megharaj
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  4. Kadiyala Venkateswarlu
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  5. Yong Bok Lee
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  6. Ravi Naidu
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Correspondence to Saranya Kuppusamy.

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Kuppusamy, S., Thavamani, P., Megharaj, M. et al. Oak (Quercus robur) Acorn Peel as a Low-Cost Adsorbent for Hexavalent Chromium Removal from Aquatic Ecosystems and Industrial Effluents. Water Air Soil Pollut 227, 62 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11270-016-2760-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11270-016-2760-z

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