Thi Thuc Quyen Nguyen
University of Technology Sydney, Australia
Title: Arsenate removal by dried luffa plant coating iron in groundwater
Biography
Biography: Thi Thuc Quyen Nguyen
Abstract
Arsenic has acknowledged as one of the serious pollutants in groundwater. At high doses, it causes many human diseases related to skin, lung and other organs such as vascular disease, renal disease, chronic lung disease, hyperkeratosis, skin lesions, etc. Many methods applied to remove arsenic in an aqueous environment; however, the adsorption approach is usually chosen because it is an efficient, economy-effective and relatively easy-to-use method. Recently, arsenic adsorption by plant emerges as a low-cost and environmentally friendly method. In this study, first time, the dried fibre of the luffa plant was used to remove arsenate from groundwater. In order to enhance the positive charge of the adsorbent surface, which was very favorable to arsenic anion attraction, the luffa fibre was coated by iron oxide. As a result, the arsenate removal efficiency of raw luffa fibre increased 70 times after modification. The optimized pH of luffa fibre was identified at 3 and the co-existing phosphate anion was the most influenced to the arsenate adsorption process of luffa fibre. The analysis of scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and zeta potential determined the characteristics of luffa fibre and its modified form. In addition, these analysed results helped to clarify the mechanism of the adsorption process.