THE EFFECT OF BIOSORBENT CONCENTRATION (CHAMOMILE TEA RESIDUES) ON LEAD REMOVAL FROM WATER SAMPLES

This study examines the potential use of a low-cost biosorbent- chamomile tea residues, as an alternative to traditional adsorbents for removing Pb 2+ ions from aqueous solutions. The inductively coupled plasma-optical emission spectrometry (ICP-OES) was used to measure the amount of metal before and after the removal, and a scanning electron microscope (SEM) was used to examine the morphology of the residues. To ascertain the optimal operational parameters for effective metal extraction from the aqueous solutions, a range of different concentration levels, as well as the addition of acid in the solutions, was explored. The results show that lead concentration is reduced under optimized conditions, achieving an impressive nearly 50% Pb 2+ ions removal with just 0.05 g of the waste material. These findings depict chamomile tea residues as promising, affordable, and highly efficient biosorbent in lead removal for environmental remediation.