EQUILIBRIUM SORPTION STUDIES OF COBALT (II) IONS UPTAKE FROM AQUEOUS SOLUTION USING MODIFIED BIOCHAR

The assessment of the equilibrium sorption for the uptake of Cobalt (ii) ions from aqueous solution using the modified biochars was studied. The modified biochars were prepared from agricultural waste materials: palm shells ( Elaeis guineesis jeaq .) and sugarcane peels ( Saccharum officinarum ). The unmodified and oxidativly modified biochars were characterized for their functional groups, morphology, elemental analysis and surface area using Fourier Transform Infrared Spectrophotometer (FTIR), Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM), Energy dispersive x-ray spectroscope (EDX) and Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET) respectively. The batch equilibrium sorption procedure was assessed for the uptake of cobalt ions from aqueous solution. The findings demonstrated that the specific surface area of the Potassium permanganate and Nitric acid modified palm shells and sugarcane peels biochars exhibited high surface area of MBET 450.023m 2 /g, and SBET 256.0m 2 /g for AP1 and MBET of 392.508m 2 /g, SBET of 241.9m 2 /g for BS2 respectively, greater than the unmodified biochar with 356.76m 2 /g for MBET, 244.2m 2 /g for SBET and 418.333m 2 /g for MBET and 227.2m 2 /g for SBET. The equilibrium sorption data conform to the Freundlich model with coefficient of correlation (R 2 ) value of 0.9976 and 0.9426 for the modified palm shell (AP1) and sugarcane peel (BS2) respectively. The AP1 has the highest adsorption and good reusability for Co 2+ , and has good practical application prospects.