Potential Use of Leaf Biomass - Wrightia tinctoria for Removal of Pb+2

The present investigation attempted to analyze the biosorption behaviour of novel biosorbent, Wrightia tinctoria biomass, for removal of Pb+2 from solution against the function of initial metal ion concentration, pH, temperature, sorbent dosage and biomass particle size. The maximum biosorption was found to be 98.51 % at pH 4.7 and biosorption capacity (qe) of Pb+2 is 11.04 mg/g. The Langmuir, Tempkin and Freundlich equilibrium adsorption isotherms were studied and observed that Langmuir model is best t than the other model with correlation co-efficient of 1.0. Kinetic studies indicated that the biosorption process of Pb+2 followed well pseudo second order model with R2=1.0. The process is exothermic and, spontaneous. The chemical functional groups OH, CH2 stretching vibrations, C=O of alcohol, C=O of amide, P=O stretching vibrations, -CH, were involved in the process. The XRD pattern of the Wrightia tinctoria was found to be mostly amorphous in nature. The SEM studies showed Pb+2 biosorption on selective grains of the biosorbent. It was concluded that Wrightia tinctoria leaf powder can be used as an effective, low cost, and environmentally friendly biosorbent for the removal of Pb+2 from aqueous solution.