An-Najah Staff

Removal of cadmium from aqueous solutions using 20 species of plant leaves and combinations of these leaves have been studied. Several factors affecting the removal efficiency have been studied. The most efficient types of plant leaves for the removal of cadmium are those of styrax, plum, pomegranate and walnut. The interaction effect of the combined leaf samples on the efficiency of removal of cadmium has been found to be additive in combinations involving styrax plant leaves but seems to be antagonistic in all other combinations. The optimum experimental conditions for removal of cadmium have been found to be at pH 4.1, using high concentrations of naturally dried plant leaves, using ground leaves and to remove cadmium from agitated aqueous solutions. The percentage of metal removed at an initial cadmium concentration of 10 mg/l by the most efficient types of leaves have been found to be 85% for styrax leaves, 85% for plum leaves, 80% for pomegranate leaves, 78% for walnut leaves and 77% for meddler leaves. The presence of foreign ions or complexing agents has been found to reduce the efficiency of removal of cadmium by plant leaves. About 80–85% of the cadmium in charged plant leaves has been released under the influence of changing the pH of the solution, addition of competing ions and the addition of EDTA. The results of removal of cadmium by plant leaves have been found to follow the Freundlich adsorption isotherm, first-order reaction with respect to cadmium and to have intra-pore diffusion as the rate-limiting step.

Decaying leaves have been proven capable of partially removing lead from polluted water. Several factors affecting the removal process have been studied. These include the concentration of lead ions, concentration of leaves, drying leaves, degree of crushing of leaves, leaf extracts, pH, agitation and presence of competing and of complexing agents. The relative capability of some common types of leaves for the removal of lead from water has been studied.
The release of lead from leaves saturated with lead ions has been studied under the effect of varying pH, addition of competing ions and the addition of complexing agents.
The results of the present work indicate that the interaction between lead ions and leaves is mainly an adsorption process and fit the Freundlich adsorption isotherm whose parameters have also been calculated. A fractional order of reaction (0.7) has been determined for the reaction between lead ions and leaves using two methods of evaluation. A mechanism in which film diffusion being the most probable limiting step has been suggested.

Removal of zinc from aqueous solutions by 15 species of plant leaves was studied. The maximum efficiency of removal was found to be by walnut and poplar leaves at pH 6 with a maximum removal of 82%. Increasing the concentration of plant leaves increased the removal of zinc up to a limit. Agitation of solution increased the efficiency of the removal process. The presence of competing and complexing agents affected the removal process negatively but also positively in few cases.