Dried Leaves as Potential Adsorbent for Removal of Methylene Blue

Abstract

Dyes are an important class of coloured synthetic organic compound that used and applied in various industries, especially in textile industry. In this work, the aim was to remove cationic dye (methylene blue) from aqueous solution using a low-cost and eco-friendly adsorbent, dried leaves (DLs). Dried leaves (DLs) are agricultural waste largely available in Malaysia. The main objective was to investigate the removal efficiency and the effects of operational parameters on MB removal efficiency under batch adsorption method. The batch experiments were carried out to study the effects of the following variables included the adsorbent dosage (0.05-2.0 g), initial MB concentration (20-200mg/L), temperature (30-60°C) and initial pH solution (2-11). Adsorption experiments using DL resulted in higher methylene blue (MB) removal efficiency ranging from 85 to 98% for 0.05-2.0 g of adsorbent dosage. From the experiments result, it was found that MB adsorption increased with increasing the adsorbent dosage. However, MB adsorption decreased with increasing the initial MB concentration, temperature and initial solution pH. The MB removal using 2.0 g of adsorbent was 98.25%. This dosage (2.0g) was considered as optimum dosage to remove MB from the aqueous solutions.