Kinetics and Equilibrium Isotherm Studies of Endrin and o, p DDT Adsorption on Low Cost Adsorbent, Parthenium hysterophorous Activated with Nitric Acid and Methanol

The efficiency of activated parthenium hysterophorous as an adsorbent for removing Pesticide mixture from water has been studied. Batch mode adsorption experiments have been conducted by varying pH, concentration, adsorbent dose and contact time. Pesticide removal was pH-dependent and found to be maximum at pH 2.0. The maximum removal of pesticides was achieved within 100 min after the start of every experiment. The adsorption data were fitted to Langmuir, Freundlich, Temkin and Dubnin- Radushkevich (D-R) adsorption isotherm models to evaluate the models parameter. Experimental results showed that the Langmuir isotherm model best describes for the adsorption of endrin and o, p DDT. Pseudo-first order, pseudo-second order and Weber-Morris equations were applied to fit the kinetic results. The kinetics data for the adsorption process obeyed second-order rate equation. The adsorbent was also characterized using FTIR spectroscopy to detect vibration frequency changes and BET to measure surface area, pore volume and pore radius of the adsorbent.