removal of remazol brilliant blue r from aqueous solution...

Removal of Remazol Brilliant Blue R from Aqueous Solutionby Adsorption Using Pineapple Leaf Powder and Lime PeelPowder

Normaizatul Akmar Rahmat & Aili Aqilah Ali &Salmiati & Nafsiah Hussain & Mimi Suliza Muhamad &

Risky Ayu Kristanti & Tony Hadibarata

Received: 16 December 2015 /Accepted: 1 March 2016# Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2016

Abstract Wide use of dyes in production of fabricbecomes the most problematic and generates highamount of liquid effluent pollutants to the surfacewater. The potential of waste materials, pineapple(Ananas comosus) leaf powder and lime (Citrusaurantifolia) peel powder, to remove Remazol Bril-liant Blue R (RBBR) from aqueous solution throughadsorption process was investigated. Batch experi-ments were conducted at initial dye concentration of500 mg/L. Data analysis showed a removal percentagemore than 90 %. The Langmuir, Freundlich, andTemkin isotherm models were also investigated tostudy the mechanism of dye molecules onto adsorptionprocess. The optimum equilibrium was obtained by the

Langmuir isotherm (R2=0.9945) for pineapple leavesand (R2=0.9994) for lime peel. The maximum mono-layer adsorption capacity adsorbents onto RBBR(9.58 mg/g) were achieved. The pseudo-second-orderkinetic indicates that the rate constant was 1.00. Thespecific area of both adsorbents was identified ashomogenous structure and was characterized by fieldemission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM) anal-ysis. The surface functional groups responsible for dyeuptake by adsorbents indicate that both adsorbentswere defined as carboxyl group which consists ofcarbonyl and hydroxyl groups and were analyzed byFourier transform infrared spectrometry (FTIR) analy-sis. The overall study indicates that adsorbents pre-pared from pineapple leaves and lime peels are alter-native low-cost product in dye removal from aqueoussolution.

Keywords Ananas comosus .Citrus aurantifolia .

Remazol Brilliant Blue R . Field emission scanningelectronmicroscopy. Fourier transform infraredspectrometry

1 Introduction

The increase in demand for product related with dyescontributes to the wastewater becoming one of the sub-stantial sources of severe pollution problems. The majorsources of the dyes found in surface water are thedischarge from industries that use dye in their products.

Water Air Soil Pollut (2016) 227:105 DOI 10.1007/s11270-016-2807-1

N. A. Rahmat : Salmiati :N. Hussain :M. S. Muhamad :T. Hadibarata (*)Centre for Environmental Sustainability and Water Security(IPASA), Research Institute for Sustainable Environment,Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, 81310 UTM Skudai, Johor,Malaysiae-mail: [email protected]

N. A. Rahmat :A. A. Ali : Salmiati :N. Hussain :M. S. Muhamad : T. HadibarataDepartment of Environmental Engineering, Faculty of CivilEngineering, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, 81310 UTM Skudai,Johor, Malaysia

R. A. KristantiFaculty of Engineering Technology, Universiti Malaysia Pahang,Lebuhraya Tun Razak, 26300 Gambang, Kuantan, Pahang,Malaysia

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Textile industry ranked at first place that contributeshigh usage of dyes for coloration. The effluent releasedfrom the industry is wastewater that contains pure con-centrated dye and results in undesirable water for anypurposes such as human drinking water, recreationalactivity, and survival of other living organisms. Unor-ganized industries will lead to a crisis of water pollutantsince the dyes can remain in the environment for anextended period of time. Ever since the dyeing tech-nique was invented, color effluents were produced aswell. Various synthetic dye stuffs appeared in the efflu-ents from many kinds of industries such as dye stuffs,textiles, leather, and paper (Han et al. 2011; Hadibarataet al. 2013).

RBBR is one of synthetic dyes that are mostly used inthe textile industry. In this industry, the RBBR arewidely used and applied to fabric such as nylon, wool,and silk to provide a wide range of colorfast and brighthues. Apart from that, the RBBR dye is not only focus-ing on textile industry but also others that require dyeingprocess such as paper and on other principal substratessuch as inks and leather. It has a chemical formulaC22H16N2Na2O11S3 with 626.54 g molecular weight.This dye is an anthraquinone dye which is one of chro-mophoric groups. It has stable chemical structures andnot easily to be degraded by chemical and conventionalphysical processes (Robinson et al. 2001). Since it is ananthraquinone dye, Remazol Brilliant Blue R (RBBR) isan anionic dye and recalcitrant organopollutant whichrepresents an important class of often toxic and hasreactive characteristics that cause solubility in water(Eichlerova et al. 2007; Lazim et al. 2015b). Usually, itis used as an organic dye in industrial sectors (Guptaet al. 2012; Hirata et al. 2002).

Dye effluents are complex in chemical nature,highly colored, and most often bio-degradable andinhibitory and exhibit toxicity to both aquatic andnon-aquatic biota. In addition, the dyes are usuallyable to escape conventional wastewater treatmentprocess and contribute to the result of high stabil-ity to the surface water. Colored effluents reducepenetration of sunlight and consequent reduction inphotosynthetic activity and primary production. Itmay harm and give worse impact to the life chainof the aquatic life. It is a must to remove thesepollutants from the effluents before their final dis-posal (Kant 2012; Hadibarata and Kristanti 2013).

Adsorption using agricultural waste is consid-ered as an alternative method to control the dye

pollutant in surface water. The agricultural wastehad been chosen as a medium for adsorption totake place in this experiment because it has ab-sorption characteristic that able to adsorb the dyemolecules. Compared with other biomass, agricul-tural waste requires little or no processing and italso can be said as low-cost adsorbent since theyare abundant in nature, convenient to use,environment-friendly bio-material, and cheap.Based on research, the best method to treat thewastewater is adsorption process that uses activat-ed carbon. Adsorption on activated carbon waswell known to be highly efficient for the removalof various impurities from wastewater. However,the production cost and its effect may create otherpollutants as well inhibit its large-scale applicationas an adsorbent (Ramaraju et al. 2013). Sinceregeneration and reuse of activated carbon makeit more costly, studies had been conducted toinvestigate the feasibility of using low-cost sub-stances as adsorbents. Study on the adsorptioncharacteristics of dyes from aqueous solution ontoagricultural waste already attracts the past re-searchers to identify the capability of agriculturalwaste itself to act as natural adsorbents in reducingdye from wastewater. Most of the adsorbents havethe flexibility in design and operation and highremoval efficiency have made adsorption processgaining its popularity (Keng et al. 2013). A largenumber of researchers have studied on the prepa-ration of agriculture waste such as spent tealeaves, palm oil empty fruit bunch, jackfruit peel,orange peel, guava (Psidium guajava) leaf powder,almond shell, pomelo (Citrus grandis) peel, andpeanut hull (Lazim et al. 2015a; Mafra et al.2013; Ponnusami et al. 2008; Doulati Ardejaniet al. 2008; Hameed et al. 2008; Nor et al. 2015;Tanyildizi 2011; Wirasnita et al. 2015).

In this study, different type of agricultural waste hadbeen tested as adsorbent to remove synthetic dyes. Theobjective of this study was to investigate the removalrate and adsorption capacity of RBBR by using agricul-tural waste. In addition, the study aims to determine theeffect of adsorbent dosage and initial concentration ofdye solution towards RBBR on the adsorption process.Thus, the chemical and textural characterizations of theadsorbents were investigated implied through fieldemission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM) andFourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR).

105 of 11 Water Air Soil Pollut (2016) 227:105

2 Materials and Methods

2.1 Materials and Chemicals

The agricultural wastes used in this experimentwere chili seeds, coconut bunch, coconut fiber,pineapple leaves, guava leaves, coconut residue,jackfruit peels, and lime peels. The chemical usedRBBR was obtained from Sigma-Aldrich (Milwau-kee, USA). The characterization of the dyes ispresented in Table 1. Stock solution of RBBRwas prepared by mixing 1 g of RBBR powderwith 1000 mL of distilled water to obtain1000 mg/L concentration of dye solution into vol-umetric flask. The flask was shaken to make surethe solution was mixed properly. The series of 10,20, 30, 40, and 50 mg/L of RBBR dye standardsolutions was prepared from the stock solutionprepared. The preparation of samples involvedfew numbers of steps. First, the selected agricul-tural wastes were washed with distilled water forseveral times to remove all the dirt particles adher-ing to the surface. The washed adsorbents werethen dried in a hot air oven at 105 °C for 24 h.Next, the dried agricultural wastes were groundand sieved to get the particle size of 150 μm.The purpose of sieving the materials is to ensurethat the materials are of the same size. Then, thesamples prepared were stored in an airtightcontainer.

2.2 Adsorption Experiments

The batch experiments were performed in 100-mL er-lenmeyer flasks by introducing dye solution of variousconcentrations. Then, 5 g of pineapple leaf powder andlime peel powder was added to each flask. The originalpH of the working solutions was maintained throughoutthe experiments. The flasks were agitated at 120 rpm atroom temperature (±27 °C) for 24 h. The speed was keptconstant throughout the experiment for each run toensure equal mixing. Aluminum foil was used to coverconical flasks to ensure the solution would not spill outand to avoid any substances get into the flasks.

The adsorbents were removed by filtration usingWhatman no. 1 filter paper. The residual RBBR con-centration was determined using a UV/Vis spectropho-tometer at 590 nm. The controls were obtained by usingdistilled water. All experiments were performed in trip-licate. The effects of adsorbents were studied by usingvarious types of agricultural waste. The adsorption testswere run over the contact time at range 0–24 h with 3-htime interval for RBBR. The influences of differentamount of adsorbents were studied at range 1–9 g.

The percentage of removal and adsorption capacityfor each of the sample was determined. The formulasused are shown below:

Color removal %ð Þ ¼ Co−Ce

Co� 100 ð1Þ

Table 1 Physical andchemical characteristicsof RBBR

Dye Remazol Brilliant Blue R

Chemical structure

Synonym Reactive Blue

Appearance Crystalline powder

Physical state Solid

Solubility Soluble in water

Dye content ∼50 %

Molecular weight 626.54 g mol−1

Molecular formula C22H16N2Na2O11S3Max. wavelength 590 nm

Water Air Soil Pollut (2016) 227:105 of 11 105

Adsorption capacity ¼ Co−Ce

X� V ð2Þ

where Co and Ce are represented the initial and equi-librium concentrations (mg/L), V is the volume of solu-tion (L), and X is the weight of adsorbent (g).

Isothermal study on the adsorption was determinedby Langmuir, Freundlich, and Temkin models. TheFreundlich equation is applicable to heterogeneoussorption, while the Langmuir equation is designed tohomogeneous sorption (Dogan et al. 2008). Adsorptionisotherms of dye were represented by the followingLangmuir, Freundlich, and Temkin isotherm models:

Langmuir equation;Ce

qe¼ 1

KLqmþ Ce

qmð3Þ

Freundlich equation; Inqe ¼ InK F þ 1

n

� �InCe ð4Þ

Temkin equation; qe ¼ BInAþ BInCe ð5Þwhere Ce (mg/L) is the concentration of dyes atequilibrium; qm (mg/g) is the maximum adsorptioncapacity; qe is the amount of dyes absorbed attime; KL is the Langmuir rate constant; KF and nare the rate constant of Freundlich; A (L/g) isTemkin equilibrium binding constant; and B(J mol−1) is Temkin constant related to heat ofsorption.

The study on sorption kinetics of RBBR was inves-tigated by examining the influence of contact time ondyes removal within 24 h. The conditions of sorptionkinetics were treated through pseudo-first-order,

pseudo-second-order, and intraparticle diffusionmodels.

Pseudo‐first‐order; In qe−qtð Þ ¼ Inqe−k1t ð6Þ

Pseudo‐second‐order;t

qt¼ 1

k2qe2þ t

qeð7Þ

Intraparticle diffusion; qt ¼ kdiff t12 þ C ð8Þ

where qe (mg/g) is amount adsorbed at equilibrium time;qt (mg/g) is amount adsorbed at time, t (min); k1 is thepseudo-first-order rate constant; k2 is the pseudo-second-order rate constant; kdiff (mg/g min1/2) is theintraparticle diffusion rate constant; and C is the inter-cept that indicates the boundary layer thickness.

2.3 Characterization of the Adsorbent Materials

The characterization of pineapple leaf powder and limepeel powder was analyzed by FESEM and FTIR analy-sis (Lazim et al. 2015a; Wirasnita et al. 2014). Surfacetexture was analyzed by the FESEM (JEOL 6335F-SEM, Japan), and elementary analyses were performedsimultaneously using an EDX spectrometer. The func-tional groups on the surface of the adsorbents wereanalyzed by FTIR spectrometer at room temperature inthe spectral range varied from 4000 to 400 cm−1.

Fig. 1 FESEM images of raw pineapple leaf powder (a) and pineapple leaf powder after adsorption with Remazol Brilliant Blue R (b)


3 Results and Discussion

3.1 Characterization of Adsorbents

The FESEM photographs of the pineapple leaf powderand lime peel powder are shown in Figs. 1 and 2. The

photograph of the pineapple leaf powder was observedat a magnification of ×600. Pineapple leaf powder hasvarious sizes of pores at a range of 15–25 μm. Asobserved, the surface of pineapple leaf powder wasrough and the surfaces have valley and hilly like struc-ture. The function of layer of pores is a good possibility

Fig. 2 FESEM images of raw lime peel powder (a) and lime peel powder after adsorption with Remazol Brilliant Blue R (b)

Fig. 3 FTIR absorption peaks for raw pineapple leaf powder (a) and pineapple leaf powder after adsorption with Remazol Brilliant Blue R (b)


for dye to be adsorbed. After treatment, pineappleleaf powder showed unsmooth surface and encour-aged the adsorbents to absorb the RBBR. The sur-face layer is covered with dye molecules that fill thespaces of the raw sample. The photograph of thelime peel powder was observed at a magnification of×2500 and showed small cavities with average of0.5–1.5 μm. The structure shows that the surface isirregular in shape and rough. The surface area andstructure indicated that the lime peels also have

better surface to trap the dyes. After treatment, thesurface of lime peel powder was rough with a veryfew pores. The results indicated that lime peels havealso better function to act as adsorbents, and most ofthe pores in the adsorbents were covered by RBBR.Adsorption capacity of both adsorbents was different,mainly due to the difference in their surface porosity.A low surface area of the adsorbents indicated theadsorbents have low porosity to absorb (Lazim et al.2015a; Wirasnita et al. 2014).

Fig. 4 FTIR absorption peaks forraw lime peel powder (a) and limepeel powder after adsorption withRemazol Brilliant Blue R (b)

Table 2 FTIR spectral characteristics of pineapple leaves and lime peels before and after adsorption

Pineapple leave frequency (cm−1) Assignment Lime peel frequency (cm−1) Assignment

Beforeadsorption

After adsorption RBBR Beforeadsorption

After adsorption RBBR

3393.26 3429.57 O–H stretch, H bonded 3393.09 3500.00 O–H stretch, H bonded

2925.74 2928.04 C–H 2929.01 2928.40 C–H stretch

1623.36 1635.39 N–H bend 1627.48 1637.24 N–H bends

1390.18 1386.43 C–H rock 1402.83 1424.74 C–C stretch

1058.14 1065.24 C–N stretch 1062.21 1073.18 C–N stretch

612.62 620.79 C–Br stretch 615.24 619.18 –C≡C–H:C–H bends


FTIR spectrum of raw adsorbents and adsorbentsafter adsorption with RBBR is shown in Figs. 3 and 4.The porosity as well as the chemical reactivity of func-tional groups on the adsorbent surface may affect theadsorption capacity. Table 2 shows spectral characteris-tics of pineapple leaf powder and lime peel powderbefore and after adsorption. Many functional groupswere present on the surfaces of pineapple leaf powderand show band shifting and possible involvement ofhydroxyl groups around the broad peak at3393.26 cm−1. The broad peak that shifted to3429.57 cm−1 by adsorption of RBBR, respectively,shows functional group of alcohols and phenols withinitial bond of alcohol O–H stretch and H– bond. Theinitial peak at 2925.74 cm−1 was shifted to2928.04 cm−1 and showed an alkane group was bondedto C–H stretch. The strong band at 1623.36 cm−1 wasshifted to 1635.39 cm−1 corresponding to 1° aminegroup with N–H bond. Peak 1390.18 cm−1 that wasthen shifted to 1386.43 cm−1 shows there was group ofalkanes and consists of C–H rock bond. Aliphatic amine

groups are shown at peak 1058.14 cm−1 with C–Nstretch bond which is shifted to 1065.24 cm−1. Finally,alkyl halide groups are found at peak 612.62 cm−1 andshifted to 620.79 cm−1 with C–Br stretch bond.

The lime peel powder showed peak at 3393.09 cm−1,and the peak shifted to 3500.00 cm−1 by adsorption ofRBBR, respectively, shows functional group of alcoholsand phenols with existing bond of alcohol O–H stretchand H bonded. The peaks at 2929.01, 2928.40, and2926.77 cm−1 are the characteristic of C–H stretch inalkane group. The strong band at 1627.48, 1637.24, and1628.03 cm−1 is corresponding to 1° amine group withN–H bond. The absorption bands at around 1402.83,1424, and 1436.87 cm−1 are the characteristic of C–Cbonds in aromatic rings. Aliphatic amine group with C–N stretch bond is represented at peaks 1062.21, 1073.18,and 1064.10 cm−1. Furthermore, the peaks at615.24 cm−1 that then shifted to 619.18 and621.87 cm−1 are attributed to alkyne group with –C≡C–H:C–H stretching and bending. The FTIR analy-sis indicated that both adsorbents consist a large numberof carbonyl and hydroxyl groups, and these groupsshow a combination of carboxyl group that could bethe potential active sites for interaction with the dye(Han et al. 2011). Hydroxyl groups were defined asalcohol groups which have high affinity towards pollut-ants and also heavy metals, while carbonyl groups are aform of hydrogen bonds (Lazim et al. 2015b).

3.2 Batch Studies

The dye removal of eight adsorbent materials, includingchili seed, coconut bunch, coconut fiber, pineappleleaves, guava leaves, coconut residue, jackfruit peels,

Table 4 Effect of contact time onto percentage removal and adsorption capacity of RBBR

Time (h) Pineapple leaf powder Lime peel powder

Removal (%) Adsorption capacity (mg/g) Removal (%) Adsorption capacity (mg/g)

3 75.2 7.48 73.4 7.29

6 81.3 8.09 79.8 7.91

9 89.5 8.93 84.3 8.42

12 94.5 9.44 91.6 9.15

15 95.6 9.55 94.9 9.48

18 95.8 9.56 95.1 9.50

21 95.9 9.58 95.5 95.5

24 96.2 9.60 95.9 9.58

Table 3 Percentage removal and adsorption capacity of RBBR

Adsorbent Removal (%) Adsorption capacity (mg/g)

Chili seeds 93.97 9.40

Coconut bunch 94.76 9.48

Coconut fiber 95.48 9.55

Pineapple leaves 96.20 9.66

Guava leaves 94.09 9.41

Coconut residue 93.85 9.38

Jackfruit peels 92.26 9.23

Lime peels 95.89 9.58


and lime peels, was shown in Table 3. All adsorbentmaterials were able to remove a substantial amount ofRBBR. The highest removal rate was shown by pineap-ple leaves (96.2 %) and the lowest removal rate obtainedby chili seeds (93.9 %). Other adsorbents have shownremoval more than 90 %. Two adsorbents, pineappleleaves and lime peels, that have the highest removalability were then subjected for further experiment.

3.3 Effect of Adsorbent Contact Time on Adsorption

The effect of adsorption contact time on the RBBRremoval is shown in Table 4. The removal rate andadsorption capacity of both adsorbent increased gradu-ally over time. The study on effect of contact time wasconducted within 24 h with 3-h time interval. The testwas conducted over 24 h to determine the optimumadsorption equilibrium. The removal rate of pineappleleaf powder and lime peel powder was found at therange of 75 to 96 % and 73 to 95 %, respectively.Adsorption capacity of those two adsorbents was 7.48to 9.62mg/g and 7.29 to 9.58mg/g. The results obtainedindicated that pineapple leaves were very effective atfirst 15 h while removing the RBBR dye. This might be

related with the availability of readily accessible sites(Wirasnita et al. 2014). It is noted that the removal rateof lime peel powder slightly changed after the first 15 hindicating the adsorbents were saturated and reachedequilibrium (Demiral et al. 2008).

Differently with the results obtained by lime peels, at18 h, it already obtained the optimum percentage re-moval and adsorption capacity with results 95% remov-al and 9.50 mg/g adsorption capacity. After 18 h, thepercentage removal and adsorption capacity were stag-nant over time. This shows that the number of vacantsites at 18 h was greater, and after that, the number ofreadily accessible sites was decreased over time. It canbe concluded that by using pineapple leaves and limepeels, the percentage removal and adsorption capacityof RBBR tend to increase with the increase of contacttime.

3.4 Effect of Adsorbent Concentration on Adsorption

The effect of adsorbent concentration on adsorption isperformed by applying different quantities of 1, 3, 5, 7,and 9 g adsorbents to the 50-mL dye solution as shownin Table 5. The percentage of removal was found to be

Table 5 Effect of adsorbent concentration on adsorption and adsorption capacity of RBBR

Weight (g) Pineapple leaf powder Lime peel powder

Removal (%) Adsorption capacity (mg/g) Removal (%) Adsorption capacity (mg/g)

1 75.8 45.38 53.4 26.29

3 89.1 19.29 73.4 18.31

5 96.2 9.60 95.9 9.58

7 96.1 9.59 95.4 9.55

9 96.0 9.55 95.1 9.48

Table 6 Some agriculturalwastes used for RBBR removalfrom aqueous solution

Adsorbents Adsorption capacity (mg/g)or percentage removal (%)

References

Durian peel 14.9 % Lazim et al. (2015a)

Orange peel 11.4 % Lazim et al. (2015b)

Spent tea leaves 9.7 mg/g Mafra et al. (2013)

Salvinia natans 61.9 mg/g Pelosi et al. (2014)

Rambutan peel 78.4 % Ahmad (2011)

Pineapple leaf powder 96.2 % This study

Lime peel powder 95.9 % This study


increased as quantities of adsorbent increased. Indeed,the increasing of percentage can be assumed as linear.However, the adsorption capacity of adsorbents wasdecreased when the amount of adsorbent was added.Thus, these two concentrations were impractical to beused to treat 50 mL of dye solution. The highest removalpercentage of RBBR was shown by 5 g of adsorbents(96.2 %).Meanwhile, 1 and 3 g of pineapple leaf powderexhibited 75.8 and 89.1 % of RBBR removal, respec-tively. Addition of 7 and 9 g of pineapple leaf powdergave no effect in increasing removal. The same trendwasfound in lime peel powder removal ability. At the con-centrations of 1, 3, 5, 7, and 9 g of lime peel powder, theremoval rate of RBBR was 53.4, 73.4, 95.9, 95.4, and95.1 %, respectively. Hence, application of 5 g adsorbentgave the most promising result and, moreover, it was themost suitable quantity to be applied to treat RBBR. Theresult was similar with a previous study that the moreadsorbent dosage there is, the larger is the volume of dyethat a fixed dose of adsorbent can purify. The concentra-tion gradient between adsorbates in the solution and inthe adsorbent surface causes the decrease of adsorptioncapacity and the increase of the percentage removal(Kumar et al. 2011). The comparison of adsorption

capacity of the pineapple leaf powder with that of variousadsorbents is given in Table 6.

3.5 Adsorption Isotherm

Due to the decrease in residual RBBR in time, it showedthat there were strong adsorption interactions betweenthe adsorbents and the chosen dyes. By plotting 1/qeversus 1/Ce for the Langmuir isotherm, the sorptionpotential of adsorbents, qm, value can be predicted asshown in Table 7. The graph of Freundlich isothermplotted through log qe versus log Ce gives the value ofKF and n, while the graph of Temkin isotherm plottedthrough qe versus Ce gives value of A and B. From thegraph, Langmuir, Freundlich, and Temkin give a linearcurve with the correlation factor (R2). By comparing thecorrelation factor of all graphs, Langmuir isothermwhich obtained R2 equal to 0.9945 and 0.9994 hasproved that it provides a better fit to explain the adsorp-tion of dyes for both adsorbents since the values aregreater than Freundlich and Temkin obtained. Based onthe result provided, it assumes that the surface of adsor-bents was homogeneous that the data fit very well withLangmuir model. The Langmuir isotherms were also

Table 7 Isotherm parameters for adsorption of RBBR onto pineapple leave powder and lime peel powder

Adsorption isotherm Adsorption constant Pineapple leaf powder Lime peel powder

Langmuir qm (mg/g) 42.02 39.37

KL (mg/L) 0.0078 0.0047

R2 0.9945 0.9994

Freundlich n 0.6304 0.6373

KL (mg/g) 16.90 37.98

R2 0.9818 0.9927

Temkin A 20.37 34.79

B 37.923 36.338

R2 0.9173 0.9434

Table 8 Kinetic parameters of RBBR

Adsorption kinetics Pineapple leaves Lime peels

qe, exp qe, cal k2 R2 qe, exp qe, cal k2 R2

Pseudo-first-order 9.5764 9.5936 0.0836 0.5775 9.5147 9.523 0.1309 0.6606

Pseudo-second-order 9.5764 9.5785 3.4160 1.0000 9.5147 9.4251 1.8454 1.000

Interparticle diffusion 9.5764 9.5679 0.0231 0.7100 9.5147 9.6300 0.0276 0.5594


preferred to estimate the monomolecular adsorption ca-pacity, qm, that completes monolayer coverage on theadsorbent surface (Ergene et al. 2009).

3.6 Adsorption Kinetics

Kinetic rate constant, k, and qe for each models can becalculated by plotting graph In(qe−qt) versus t for pseu-do-first-order, t/qt versus t for pseudo-second-ordermodels, and qt versus t1/2 for intraparticle diffusionmodels. Table 7 shows kinetic parameters obtained fromcalculation of the graph plotted. Based on the data inTable 8, amount of sorbed dyes (qe) for each experimentis almost same as qe calculated based on pseudo-second-order models. Furthermore, the R2 obtained calculatedthrough pseudo-second-order models for each experi-ment gives a value of 1.000 that proves it is better fitcompared to pseudo-first-order and intraparticle diffu-sion models. It suggested that the adsorption of RBBRfollowed the pseudo-second-order.

4 Conclusion

Adsorbents produced from pineapple leaf powder andlime peel powder proved that both have great adsorptionin removal of RBBR. Adsorption of RBBR on pineappleleaves was faster than on lime peels. The isotherm dataproved that Langmuir isotherm model gives a bettercorrelation, while the kinetic data proved that pseudo-second-order model gives a better fit which is R2=1.000.The remarkable data obtained in this experiment promptus to use the pineapple leaf powder and lime peel powderas an alternative adsorbent for the treatment of textileeffluent. But this requires an adequate effluent pretreat-ment to prevent clogging of adsorbent.

Acknowledgments The authors would like to acknowledge theMinistry of Education Malaysia (R.J130000.7809.4 F465) andUniversiti Teknologi Malaysia (Q.J130000.2522.10H17) as finan-cial support of this project.

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