Biosorption of chlorophenoxy acid herbicides from aqueous solution by using low-cost agricultural wastes

The potential biosorption abilities of apple shell (AS), orange peel (OP), banana peel (BP), and millet waste (MW) as a bio-waste material to remove 2,4-dichlorophenoxy acetic acid (2,4-D), 2,4-dichlorophenoxy propanoic acid (2,4-DP), and 2,4-dichlorophenoxy butyric acid (2,4-DB) from aqueous solution were investigated in batch condition. Optimum biosorption conditions were determined as a function of contact time, pH of the solution, amount of biomass, and initial pesticide concentrations. The concentrations of the pesticides in the remaining solutions were simultaneously determined by high performance thin layer chromatography. Langmuir and Freundlich models were applied to describe the biosorption isotherm of the pesticides by agricultural wastes. The experimental adsorption data were fitted to Langmuir adsorption models (r2 > 0.99). It was found that adsorption of 2,4-DP was higher for all biosorbent. The highest maximum adsorption capacities of 2,4-DP were found as 40.08, 22.71, 33.26, and 45.45 mg/g, respectively, for AS, OP, BP, and MW. Maximum adsorption capacity was obtained for 2,4-D as OP > MW > BP > AS, 2,4-DP as MW > AS > BP > OP, and 2,4-DB as OP > AS > BP > MW. From the results, it can be said that MW was an effective biosorbent for removal of 2,4-DP and OP was an effective biosorbent for removal of 2,4-D and 2,4-DB through the studied pesticides. Optimum biosorption conditions were determined as 60 min of contact time, 100 mg of biomass, AS at pH 6.0, OP at pH 6.0, MW at pH 7.0, and BP at pH 7.0. FT-IR was employed to understand the surface properties of biosorbents. According to the results, agricultural wastes have high adsorption capacity.