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Ind. Eng. Chem. Res., 2013, 52 (36), pp 13092–13101.
Shiow-Tien Song , Norasikin Saman ,Khairiraihanna Johari , Hanapi Mat.
Advanced Material and Process Engineering Laboratory, Faculty of Chemical Engineering and‡Novel Materials Research Group, Nanotechnology Research Alliance, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, 81310 UTM Skudai, Johor, Malaysia
Abstract
A novel mercapto-grafted rice straw (RS-GM) was synthesized and characterized against raw rice straw (RS-Raw). The RS-GM yielded a better Hg(II) biosorption performance compared to RS-Raw as the incorporated-mercaptan functional group presented a strong affinity toward Hg(II). The isotherm data correlated well with the Langmuir isotherm model having maximum biosorption capacity, qmax of 103.10 mg/g and 161.30 mg/g for RS-Raw and RS-GM, respectively. The Hg(II) biosorption is thermodynamically feasible, endothermic, and spontaneous in nature. The biosorption kinetic data were best-fitted into the pseudo-second-order kinetic model. Further analysis suggested that the Hg(II) biosorption process is governed by the intraparticle and external mass transfer in which the film diffusion was the rate limiting step. The adsorption–desorption cycle was repeated four times by using diluted HCI as desorbing agent, and the results were comparable to the unused biosorbent. The removal of Hg(II), which was also done in the produced water, was found to be 96% by using RS-GM.
Copyright © 2013 American Chemical Society
