Environmental Biotechnology
Electronic Journal of Biotechnology ISSN: 0717-3458 Vol. 12 No. 4, Issue of October 15, 2009
© 2009 by Pontificia Universidad Católica de Valparaíso -- Chile Received August 6, 2008 / Accepted June 1, 2009
DOI: 10.2225/vol12-issue4-fulltext-4
RESEARCH ARTICLE

Removal of malachite green from water by Firmiana simplex wood fiber

Xiangliang Pan
 Xinjiang Institute of Ecology and Geography
Chinese Academy of Sciences
Urumqi 830011, China

Daoyong Zhang*
 State Key Laboratory of Environmental Geochemistry
Institute of Geochemistry
Chinese Academy of Sciences
Guiyang, 550002, China
E-mail: zhang-daoyong@163.com

*Corresponding author

Financial support: Knowledge Innovation Program of Chinese Academy of Sciences (KZCX2-YW-335 and KZCX2-YW-135), Program of 100 Distinguished Young Scientists of the Chinese Academy of Sciences , National Natural Science Foundation of China (40673070, 40872169) and 863 program project 2006AA06Z339 from MOST of China.

Keywords: kinetics, thermodynamics, adsorption, malachite green, wood fiber

Abbreviations:

MG: malachite green
Abstract   Full Text

This study shows that wood fiber of Phoenix tree (Firmiana simplex) is an effective adsorbent for malachite green (MG). MG sorption behavior onto the wood adsorbent was investigated in this study. Basic condition was favorable for MG adsorption to the adsorbent. The pseudo second order equation well described MG adsorption onto the wood adsorbent. The Freundlich Isotherm could describe the sorption data. The positive value of ΔH0 showed that adsorption of malachite green onto the wood adsorbent was endothermic. The negative values of ΔG at various temperatures indicate the spontaneous nature of the adsorption process.
Supported by UNESCO / MIRCEN network