Competitive Adsorption of Copper, Zinc, and Chromium from Wastewater Using Corn-Cob Ash: Optimization Approach

Corn Cob ash was used in competitive adsorption of copper, zinc, and chromium from wastewater. The central composite design; a sub-set of response surface methodology was used to optimize the adsorption of the heavy metals. The result of the statistical parameters showed the coefficient of determination (R2) of 1.000, 0.999, and 1.000 for copper, zinc, and chromium respectively. The optimal conditions obtained for adsorbent dosage, initial concentration, temperature, contact time, and particle size were 13.20 mg, 79.72 mg/l, 34.95 °C, 40.38 min, and 1400 µm, respectively with the desirability of 1.000. The predicted and the actual values of metal removal obtained were 69.41%, 76.37%, as well as 70.44%, 72.50%, 77.90 % and 71.00% for copper, zinc, and chromium respectively. The ressult indicated a good conformity between the model predicted values and the actual values, thus having small errors of 3.09%, 1.53 % and 0.56 % for copper, zinc, and chromium respectively.

The photocatalytic NO-removal activity of g-C3N4 significantly enhanced by the synergistic effect of Pd0 nanoparticles and N vacancies

Graphite carbon nitride (g-C3N4) has been proven to have photocatalytic activity for NO-removal under visible-light irradiation. However, the competitive adsorption between NO and O2 during the process may decrease the...