Fluoride Removal from Aqueous Solution Employing Chicken Feathers: Isotherms, Kinetics and Thermodynamics Studies

Chicken feathers derived from poultry waste were employed as an adsorbent in this study to get rid of fluoride from aqueous solutions. FTIR, XRD, SEM-EDX, and BET analysis were used to characterize the adsorbent. The influence of initial sample pH, a dosage of adsorbent, contact time, and initial fluoride concentration on the capacity of adsorption by modified chicken feathers (MCFs) was explored in the batch test. The batch adsorption findings show optimized equilibrium at pH 6, dose 6 g/L, and contact time of 60 min. The experimental data were found best suited to the Freundlich adsorption isotherm (R-2 = 0.911) among the three isotherms used. The highest adsorption capacity of the sorbents for fluoride was measured using the Langmuir isotherm (Q(o) = 4.78 mg/g). The pseudo-second-order; PSO model with a more significant correlation (R-2 = 0.9809) and sorption capacity of 1.555 mg/g was in good agreement for fluoride uptake than other employed kinetic models according to kinetic statistics. Thermodynamic studies revealed that fluoride adsorption on MCFs was feasible, spontaneous, and endothermic.