Effective biosorption of arsenic from water using La(III) loaded carboxyl functionalized watermelon rind

Arsenic is highly toxic and carcinogenic element that mainly enters into our body through drinking water and caused adverse effect even at low concentration. A new type of cation exchanger is developed from waste biomass of watermelon rind after increasing the carboxyl functional groups by saponification. Saponified Watermelon Rind (SWR) was further loaded with La(III) to attenuate the contamination of As(III) from water. Characterization of biosorbent was performed using Fourier Transform Infra-Red (FTIR) spectroscopy, Field emission Scanning Electron Microscopy (Fe-SEM,) Energy Dispersive X-ray (EDX) spectroscopy and zeta potential analysis. Arsenic speciation of sorption product through X-ray photoelectron spectroscopic (XPS) analysis revealed that As(III) is partially converted into As(V) during biosorption process. The biosorption tests for As(III) were explored under different operating conditions. La(III)-SWR towards As(III) biosorption was best described by Langmuir biosorption isotherm and pseudo second order kinetic model. At a pH of 12.08, the optimum biosorption capacity was found to be 37.73 ± 0.12, 48.78 ± 0.09, 62.50 ± 0.11 mg/g, respectively at temperatures 298 K, 303 K and 308 K. The existance of chloride and nitrate showed negligible interference whereas sulphate and phosphate significantly inhibits As(III) biosorption. Thermodynamic study showed spontaneous and endothermic nature As(III) biosorption onto La(III)-SWR. The sorbed As(III) was eluted almost completely using 2 M NaOH. The findings of this study insinuated that La(III)-SWR biosorbent investigated in this study can be a low cost, environmentally benign and eco-friendly material for the treatment of aqueous solution polluted with arsenic ions.