Chromatography Of Metal Ions On Wood Cellulose Impregnated With Urea And Thiourea

Abstract

Adsorption chromatography of some heavy metal ions on wood cellulose of saw dust (wood waste dust) modified with hydrochloric acid, urea and thiourea was studied. Atomic absorption spectrophotometry (AAS) was used to determine the initial concentration of solutions of Zn2+, Cu2+, Ni2+, Pb2+, and Fe3+ metal ions. The solutions were allowed to pass separately through column chromatography packed with different modified adsorbents. The concentrations of the filtrates as well as amount of metal ions sorbed in each case were determined. The percentage of the sorbed metal ions by the unmodified substrate are in the range of 6.57-75.08 % while those modified with dilute HCl was found to be in the range of 69.82-86.48 %. Higher percentages were obtained on further modification of the HCl acid treated wood cellulose and was in the range of 71.98-87.03 % and 76.75-89.86 % for urea and thiourea respectively. Thus, the possibility of using sawdust as a support for the sorption of heavy metal ions may provide effective and economic means of removing valuable or toxic metal ions from sewage, industrial and mining wastewater.

Keywords: Wood cellulose, metal ions, Chemical Modification, column adsorption method

IFE Journal of Science Vol. 9 (1) 2007 pp. 145-148