Sorption of U(VI) ions from aqueous solution by eggplant leaves: Isotherm, kinetics and thermodynamics studies

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pnucene.2021.103829Get rights and content

Highlights

  • Eggplant leaves are used as sorbent for removal U (VI) ions from aqueous solutions.

  • The sorption capacity of Eggplant leaves reached 110.97 mg/g.

  • Loaded biomass has good regeneration with 1.5 M HNO3.

  • Excellent ability to be reused up to 9 cycles.

Abstract

The research aims to utilize eggplant (Solanum melongena) leaves to remove and recover U(IV) ions from aqueous solutions. The biomass was characterized by SEM, FTIR and EDS analyses. Eggplant leaves appeared a maximum U(VI) uptake up to 99.87% with sorption capacity:110.97 mg/g at pH 5, 0.09 g dose, 28 °C and 50 min in the batch sorption system. The nonlinear assessment of isotherm and kinetics showed that the sorption system was fitted well by the Freundlich model and the pseudo first-order kinetic model. Also, the thermodynamic study displayed an exothermic of the uptake process. Likewise, the sorption-desorption cycle showed the good stability of eggplant leaves structure up to 9 cycles. The high adsorption capacity, low cost, good stability and biodegradable properties of eggplant leaves make it a good adsorbent for removing and recovering U(VI) ions from aqueous solutions.

Introduction

Technological development has led to an increase in the demand for energy and its various sources, with the tendency to protect the environment from pollution. The use of traditional energy sources such as oil and coal increases the pollution of the environment, so it has been directed to other less-polluting sources, such as nuclear energy (Ahmad, 2020; Jin et al., 2015). Energy derived from the nuclear field has led to less dependence on oil and coal thus reducing environmental pollution, but it produces more dangerous pollutants due to its continuous radioactivity for many years (Shin al., 2002; Attia et al., 2010; Yousef, 2020). Nuclear applications produce many liquid pollutants that contain radioactive elements such as uranium and thorium, which need to be treated before disposal (Guo et al., 2020; Li et al., 2018). Uranium is one of the basic elements in the manufacture of nuclear fuel for nuclear reactors used in various researches or energy production (Skwarek et al., 2019; Jing et al., 217; Jianlong and Shuting, 2019; Can et al., 2020a, 2020b). Uranium causes many diseases that affect the lung and liver, the most important of which is cancer (Solgy et al., 2015; Xue et al., 2017). There are many methods used in nuclear waste treatment such as ion exchange (Foster et al., 2020; Kosari and Sepehrian, 2016; Massoud et al., 2019), precipitation(Kornilov et al., 2020), membrane (Chung et al., 2019; Hoyer et al., 2014), extraction (Attia et al., 2020; Cheira et al., 2018; Yang et al., 2020) and adsorption (Can et al., 2020b; Tian et al., 2018; Attia et al., 2019; Han et al., 2020). The adsorption process is considered one of the important processes affecting the removal of radioactive elements with low concentrations that are difficult to remove by other treatment processes (Cheira et al., 2017; Zou et al., 2019; Cheng et al., 2019). The adsorption process is also characterized by its cheap cost, efficiency, and availability of the adsorbent materials used (Imam et al., 2019). The low cost, availability, high uptake and reusability are the important points in the choice of sorbents in the sorption techniques (Jianlong and Can, 2006, 2009, 2014bib_Jianlong_and_Can_2009bib_Jianlong_and_Can_2006bib_Jianlong_and_Can_2014). Continuous research has resulted in the preparation of many effective, inexpensive and available adsorbents such as manganese oxide coated zeolite (Yousef et al., 2020), graphene oxide (Zhao et al., 2020), polypropylene nanofibers (Ashrafi et al., 2019), modified rice stem (Xiao-teng et al., 2019), and flax fiber (Abutaleb et al., 2020) which showed good results in sorption and removal of uranium from aqueous solutions. In this research, eggplant (Solanum melongena) leaves were utilized as a low-cost, available and biodegradable adsorbent material in the sorption of uranium ions from the aqueous solutions in a batch system. Sorption parameters were determined and the outcomes of the sorption system were assessed by isotherm and kinetic models. Also, the sorption thermodynamics was studied and the reusability of eggplant leaves was investigated.

Section snippets

Materials

Eggplant (Solanum melongena) leaves were gotten from the local market. All chemicals utilized in this research are analytical grade. Eggplant leaves were washed with ionized water dried at 80 °C for 12 h then ground into 65 mesh. Uranyl acetate (C4H8O6U) (Sigma Aldrich) is used to prepare a uranium feedstock solution. 1.0 M HCL and NaOH were utilized in the pH control.

Methods

A batch sorption system in a thermostatic shaker water bath was used to determine the efficiency of eggplant leaves in the

SEM analysis

The surface morphology of eggplant leaves before and after sorption (Fig. 1) shows that the surface of eggplant leaves before sorption (Fig. 1a) is rough and porous (Fig. 1a). But, after sorption, the surface becomes less rough and porosity (Fig. 1b) owing to the U(VI) ions sorption with the eggplant leaves.

EDS analysis

Fig. 2 shows the Energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy analysis of eggplant leaves before and after U(VI) sorption. EDS spectrum after U(VI) sorption appeared the presence of uranium element

Conclusion

Eggplant (Solanum melongena) leaves can be used as a low-cost and biodegradable sorbent for the removal and recovery of U(VI) ions from liquid waste. The maximum sorption capacity of eggplant leaves was 110.97 mg/g at pH 5, 50min, 0.09dose and 28 °C. The nonlinear analysis showed that the sorption system followed the Freundlich model with the sorption capacity of 41.01 mg/g and was fitted well by the pseudo first-order kinetic model. Also, the thermodynamic factors showed a spontaneous and

Credit authorship statement

Mohamed Ahmed Mahmoud, Conception and design of study, Acquisition of data, Analysis and/or interpretation of data, Drafting the manuscript, Revising the manuscript critically for important intellectual content, Approval of the version of the manuscript to be published.

Declaration of competing interest

The authors declare no competing financial interest.

Acknowledgments

This research did not receive any specific funding.

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