Synthesis and Characterization of Low-Cost Wood based Biosorbent

The purpose of this study is to prepare and characterize natural wood-based biosorbents from India's Northwest region. Biosorbents were prepared using banana pith, pineapple and bamboo stems. The preparation procedure for the biosorbents involved sequential processing steps such as washing, drying, grinding and chemical treatment using phosphoric acid and NaOH. Finally, the prepared biosorbents were sieved to different mesh sizes ranging from 80 to 230 meshes. Biosorbent characterization were carried out using BET, SEM, FTIR and TGA. Prior to chemical treatment, the biosorbents were evaluated with BET method and the surface areas obtained are 3.574, 5.678 and 9.072 m2/g for banana pith, bamboo and pineapple stem based biosorbents respectively. However, chemical treatment method enhances the BET surface area to 100.16 and 116.01 m2/g for banana pith and bamboo stem based biosorbents respectively. The average particle sizes of the biosorbents were determined as 30, 63, and 78 (µm) for biosorbents prepared from pineapple stem, banana pith, and bamboo stem respectively. TGA provided the measurement of the mass variation of the biosorbent with variation in temperature and time. For a heating rate of 10 °C/min, TGA results indicated that the maximum temperature to withstand were 65, 129, and 200 °C for biosorbents prepared with pineapple stem, banana pith and bamboo stem respectively. The obtained characterization results for the biosorbents are indicative of their promising application towards the removal of heavy metals from wastewater streams.