Papaya Seeds as A Low-Cost Sorbent for Removing Cr(VI) from the Aqueous Solution

Abstract

The presence of chromium (VI) contaminants and their toxicity in aqueous streams important environmental problems. Adsorption is one of the effective techniques that can be used for removing metal from wastewater. This research was initiated by preparing sorbent from papaya seeds and determining its functional group contents by using FT-IR. The adsorption process was carried out in a batch method. The study of adsorption aspects involved the pH, initial Cr (VI) concentration and contact time between Cr (VI) and sorbent. FT IR analysis results showed that the main functional groups are carbonyl, hydroxyl, and carboxylic. It was also found that the effective pH for Cr (VI) uptake is 2.0 and increasing contact time would increase the Cr (VI) uptake. In addition, the equilibrium was reached after 40 minutes interaction and the increase of initial chromium (VI) concentration would increase the sorbent uptake percentage. All these results indicated that papaya seed is a potential sorbent for removing Cr (VI) from aqueous solutions.