Poster Presentation Freshwater Sciences 2023

Synthesis and characterization of silver/calcium oxide-activated carbon Nano-composite for the removal of phosphate from wastewater (#626)

Mariam Onize Miss Usman 1 , Muhammad Professor Ntale 1 , George William Associate professor Nyakairu 1
  1. Makerere University Uganda, Kampala-Uganda, KAMPALA-UGANDA, Uganda

ABSTRACT

Excessive phosphate concentration in wastewater discharged into the environment is the main cause of eutrophication in aquatic environments. Adsorption methods are widely used for removing phosphate from wastewater because of their simple design, treatment efficiency, and recovery of the adsorbents. Developing adsorbents with appreciable morphology will create new approaches for better phosphate adsorption performance. In this study, Silver/calcium oxide-activated carbon nano-composite was synthesized by wet impregnation methods and characterized using Ultraviolet-Visible spectroscopy (UV-Vis) to confirm the formation of silver nanoparticles. Fourier Transform-Infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) was used to study the functional groups, whereas a Scanning Electron Microscope coupled with Energy Dispersive X-ray spectroscopy SEM/EDS was used to study the morphology and elemental composition. An X-ray diffractometer (XRD) was used to study the crystallographic nature of the nano-composite. The nano-composite was applied in the removal of phosphate from wastewater samples. Batch adsorption studies were carried out to study the effects of various experimental parameters (adsorbent dose, initial phosphate concentration, and pH) on phosphate adsorption. The results from the experiments showed that the best condition for phosphate adsorption was achieved at an adsorbent dose of 0.02 g, initial phosphate concentration of 40 mg/L, contact time of 45 minutes, and pH of 7 with percentage removal of 99.9 %, and an adsorption capacity of 45.8 mg/g. The adsorbent's efficiency in removing phosphates from real wastewater samples was tested. The percentage of phosphate removed by the synthesized adsorbent was 90 % of the real wastewater sample. This study suggests that Silver/calcium oxide-activated carbon nano-composite is a promising adsorbent for phosphate removal from aqueous solution and real wastewater samples.