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Journal of Polymer & Composites Original Research Special issue

Polymer Composite-Supported Jackfruit Peel Adsorbent for Enhanced Copper (II) Removal from Wastewater: Batch Equilibrium and Isotherm Analysis

  1. Sandeep Shewale Department of Mechanical Engineering, MIT Academy of Engineering, Alandi, Pune
  2. Abhijeet Malge Department of Mechanical Engineering, MIT Academy of Engineering, Alandi, Pune

Abstract

The increasing concern of disposal of copper-containing effluents into the environment has led to heightened interest in designing cost-effective, eco-friendly and scalable adsorbent systems. Traditional metals and synthetically engineered sorbents prove to be effective; however, these systems are energy intensive. Agricultural residues entrapped in polymer composite systems constitute an economically feasible solution to this environmental challenge. This work reports on the design, characterization and performance evaluation of an economical adsorbent prepared from jackfruit (Artocarpus heterophyllus) peel and its application in removal of copper ions from synthetic wastewater samples. The adsorbent was prepared after thorough washing, drying and calcination of jack fruit peels at temperatures ranging from 400°C to 450°C resulting in three particle sizes of 0.106 mm, 0.212 mm and 0.300 mm. The use of naturally available biopolymers, primarily pectin, cellulose and hemicellulose present in jack fruit peels as a base for polymer composite adsorption has been compared in this paper to the existing technology used for designing polymer composite adsorbents based on chitosan, functionalized poly(gamma-glutamic acid) and cellulose-based composites in recent studies. Batch adsorption experiments have been performed with different particle sizes, adsorbent doses (1-3g) and varying copper ion concentrations (100-300 mg/L) at pH=4.2 and 1000 rpm. Adsorption equilibrium concentrations of copper were quantified using UV-visible spectroscopy. Both the Langmuir and Freundlich adsorption equilibrium models were used to fit the experimental data, followed by regression analysis to obtain parameters for the respective adsorption isotherms. The maximum percentage of copper removed experimentally is 84.30%, while the maximum adsorption equilibrium capacity is 30.98 mg/g using a dosage of 1 g of adsorbent. Experimental data was successfully modeled using both isotherms, which indicated a heterogenous multilayer surface as well as monolayer chemisorption capacity, characteristics of natural biopolymer composite adsorbents. Such results confirm the viability of utilizing calcined jackfruit peel, which can be considered a naturally derived biopolymer composite material, as a potential component of engineered polymer matrix composites for metal ion removal from industrial wastewater effluents.

Keywords

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