Removal of Mercury (II) Ions from Aqueous Solutions Using the Mediterranean Seagrass: Posidonia Oceanica

Labib Awin; Rabia Bennis; Ramadan Hadoud; Mahmoud El-Rais; Hajer Elnuri; Wedad Alakrash

doi:10.54361/ajmas.269829

Authors

Labib Awin Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Science, University of Tripoli, Tripoli, Libya https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1824-8341
Rabia Bennis Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Science, University of Tripoli, Tripoli, Libya https://orcid.org/0009-0007-9942-5728
Ramadan Hadoud Department of Toxicology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Tripoli, Tripoli, Libya https://orcid.org/0009-0008-6086-208X
Mahmoud El-Rais Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Science, University of Tripoli, Tripoli, Libya https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3330-5882
Hajer Elnuri Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Science, University of Tripoli, Tripoli, Libya https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4055-0157
Wedad Alakrash Plasma Research Authority for Science Research, University of Tripoli, Tripoli, Libya https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9263-2563

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.54361/ajmas.269829

Keywords:

Removal Efficiency, Posidonia Oceanica, Mercury.

Abstract

This work investigated the adsorption properties of Posidonia oceanica (P.O) with the aim of removing mercury ions from aqueous solutions. The effects of several parameters, including contact time, temperature, pH, adsorbent dose, and initial concentration, on mercury removal efficiency were determined. The thermal gravimetric analysis displayed that the (P.O) powder contains (8.96%) moisture and (2.88%) ash. The batch mode study illustrated that mercury ion removal reached equilibrium in 90 minutes at room temperature, using 0.1 g of absorbent and 25 mL of mercury solution (50 ppb, pH 2). The increase in temperature and pH resulted in lower removal percentage, whereas the increase in ionic strength resulted in higher removal capacity. The activation and enthalpy energies of the reaction were found to be - 0.32 and - 85.20 kJ/ mole respectively, where the maximum monolayer capacity of mercury adsorption was determined to be 3.37 mg/g. The isotherm and kinetic studies showed the reaction agrees with Langmuir and pseudo-second-order models (R²= 0.99).