Remoción de cromo III y plomo II en solución acuosa, utilizando carbón activo obtenido de las semillas de guayaba

Abstract

The present work was focused on the application of activated carbon as an adsorbent material, which was used in the removal of chromium III and lead II in aqueous solution, using activated carbon obtained from guava seeds (Psidium guajava L). For this purpose, the optimum conditions were identified, where the activated carbon will develop a higher adsorption. Firstly, the dosage of the adsorbent was determined, which was 0.25 g for lead II and 0.75 g for chromium III. Consequently, the equilibrium temperature was determined to be 23ºC at an equilibrium time of 120 minutes and finally the pH, where it was obtained that the ideal is a basic pH of 9. Additionally, the reaction order was established for both lead and chromium, calculating the linear correlation coefficient (R^2); it was determined that the former follows a first order kinetics (R^2=0.9021) and the latter metal followed a 2nd order kinetics. Finally, the isotherms of each pollutant were established, resulting in the removal of lead and chromium following the Freunluich model. These results were analyzed in a contaminated water sample, where 89.87% of lead and 81.89% of chromium were removed. It was concluded that the activated carbon obtained has a high performance and is acceptable for the removal of these heavy metals. It is recommended to carry out the adsorption study with different types of heavy metals, in order to determine the trend obtained in the present work.