Bio-adsorbent derived from papaya peel waste and magnetic nanoparticles fabricated for lead determination

Abstract

Determination of toxic lead ions at trace level using solid-based adsorbents has become of interest in recent years. In this work, a novel bio-adsorbent originating from papaya peel waste (PPw) and magnetic nanoparticles (Fe3O4) was developed (Fe3O4/PPw). The new adsorbent was prepared using a one-pot green method and characterized by Fourier transform infrared, X-ray diffractometer, energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy and field emission scanning electron microscopy. The synthesized Fe3O4/PPw was used as a magnetic solid-phase extraction (MSPE) sorbent for extraction of lead ions from waste water prior to assessing by flame atomic absorption spectroscopy. The parameters influencing extraction recovery, including desorption solvent, solvent volume, sample volume, extraction time, desorption time, adsorbent dosage, salt effect and pH were optimized. A linear response for the MSPE method was achieved at concentrations from 10 to 100 ng mL-1 with a good coefficient of determination (R2=0.9987). Detection limits and quantitation limit of the MSPE method were observed around 2 ng mL-1 and 6.6 ng mL-1, respectively. The intraday and interday precision (%RSD) was in the range 1.6%-4.5% and 2.3%-7.4%, respectively. The recovery amounts obtained were 91% for tap water, 85.9% for river water and 86% for waste water. The synthesized adsorbent showed a minimum reusability of eight cycles without significant change in the lead determination. The results proved that the new bio-adsorbent (Fe3O4/PPw) is potentially capable to extract the Pb(II) from aqueous media under optimum conditions with a high extraction efficiency.