Sythesis of Nano Zerovalent Iron Supported Sawdust (NZVI/SD) and Its Application for Removal of Arsenic (III) from Aqueous Solution

Sawdust supported nano-zerovalent (NZVI/SD) iron was synthesized by treating sawdust with ferrous sulphate followed by reduction with NaBH4. The NZVI/SD was characterized by SEM, XRD, FTIR and Chemical method. Adsorption of As (III) by NZVI/SD was investigated and the maximum uptake of As (III) was found at pH value of 7.74 and equilibrium time of 3 hrs. The adsorption isotherm modelling revealed that the equilibrium adsorption data were better fitted with the Langmuir isotherm model compared with the Freundlich Isotherm model. This study revealed that the maximum As (III) ions adsorption capacity was found to be 12.66 mg/g for using NZVI/SD adsorbent. However, the kinetics data were tested by pseudo-first-order and pseudo-second-order kinetic models; and it was observed that the adsorption data could be well fitted with pseudo-second-order kinetics for As (III) adsorption onto NZVI/SD depending on both adsorbate concentration and adsorption sites. The result of this study suggested that NZVI/SD could be developed as a prominent environment-friendly adsorbent for the removal of As (III) ions from aqueous systems.