Potential of rice husk ash in atrazine removal

An experimental study was carried out to explore the possibility of using a prepared microporous material, Rice Husk Ash (RHA) as an alternative to the commercial Powdered Activated Carbon (PAC), to remove atrazine (ATZ) pesticide from aqueous solution. The effects of contact time and pH on the adsorption were studied using the batch technique. Based on Huckel model calculations, the zwitterion behaviour of atrazine molecule was proved to be related to the pH of zero charge point of adsorbents (6.8 for RHA and 8.2 for PAC). The results showed that the Pseudo Second Order model is applicable to both adsorbents, suggesting that chemisorption is the rate-limiting step. The equilibrium data fitted well with the Langmuir model in the case of RHA, whereas the Freundlich model better fitted the equilibrium data in the PAC case, suggesting the existence of multi-layer adsorption of atrazine. The adsorption for RHA was found to be feasible and spontaneous, with a removal capacity of atrazine of more than 7mgg(-1). With regard to the BET surface, this removal capacity (50.5 mu g(ATZ) / m(RHA)(2)) was 25% better than that PAC (37.75 mu g(ATZ) / m(PAC)(2)).