Removal of Zinc (II) from Aqueous Solution Using Mangosteen Fruit Shell

Abstract

The importance of water treatment over the years is highly concerned due to the increase in the heavy metals concentration in the industrial effluents. The effectiveness of adsorption process by using adsorbent materials in heavy metal removal from contaminated water has gained much attention. The present study emphasizes on the application of mangosteen shell as an agricultural waste, to remove low concentration of zinc from aqueous solution by adsorption. A synthetic solution with known zinc concentration is evaluated with different contact time. This time dependent experiment for the removal of metal ions showed that the binding to the mangosteen shell is relatively fast and equilibrium has been reached in 40 minutes contact time. The maximum uptake capacity of zinc ions on mangosteen shell is 2.50 mg/g. The results showed that mangosteen shell is a good biosorbent for removing zinc ions from aqueous. The mangosteen shell biosorbent is an environmentally friendly and efficient material that shows the potential to be applied in water treatment technology for treating inorganic effluent.