Fairus, M. D., Faeiza, B. and Suzyana, A. 2004.

Fern Tree (Gleichenia Linearis) As Metal Sorbent For

Lead Ions Removal. e-Proceeding of 17th Analysis Chemistry Malaysia Symposium. 24 – 26 August
2004. Swiss-Garden Resort & Spa, Kuantan, Pahang. pp 694-698

FERN TREE (Gleichenia Linearis) AS METAL SORBENT FOR LEAD IONS

REMOVAL

Fairus Muhamad Darus, Faeiza Hj Buyong and Suzyana Abdullah

Faculty of Applied Sciences, Universiti Technology MARA
Shah Alam, Selangor, Malaysia

ABSTRACT

Lead is one of the heavy metal that presence in industrial wastewater has become one of the most serious
problems today. The use of plant biomass such as fern tree (Gleichenia Linearis) as metal sorbent offers
a potential alternative to existing treatment technologies. In the present study, the adsorption capacity of
fern tree was study for lead ion removal. Preparation for adsorptions processes is carried in batch mode
method. Contact time between adsorbents and solutions of metal ions is 1 hour, which takes place on an
orbital shaker at 300 rpm. The effect of size sorbent, pH and concentrations of lead ions on the uptake
was also studies. The result of the adsorptions study revealed higher lead ions removal at 5 mg/l
concentrations, pH 5 and with sorbent smaller size, < 500 µm.

Keywords: Lead Ions, Metal Sorbent, Fern Tree

1. Introductions

Heavy metals are abundantly present in nature and are also added to water by man-
induced activities such as industrial, manufacturing, constructions, agriculture and
transportations. Metals are found in industrial wastes in variety of forms. When these
metals are introduced into the subsurface environment, they can react with water in
several physiochemical processes to produce appreciable concentrations that affect the
quality of water (Henze, 1995).

The presence of toxic heavy metals in the environment is very much concern,
preliminary due to their biodegradability and persistence in the environment. Over a
few decades, community is devoting concentrated efforts for treatment and removal of
heavy metals in order to combat this problem. Current methods for treatment of
industrial and municipal wastewater are using precipitation, coagulation/flotation,
sedimentation, flotation, filtration, membrane process, electrochemical technique, ions
exchange, biological process, and chemical reactions. Each method has its merits and
limitations in applications.

Adsorption has advantages to compare with other methods. The design of

adsorption processes is simple, and it is sludge-free and involves low investment in
term of both initial cost and land (Quek et. al, 1998). Activated carbon has been
recognized as a highly effective adsorbent for the treatment of heavy metal in
wastewater (Babel and Kurniawan, 2003). In spite of its prolific use, activated carbon

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remains as an expensive material since higher the quality of activated carbon, greater it
cost. Therefore, there is increasing research interest in using alternative low-cost
adsorbents. In this study, the adsorptions process will use tree fern as the adsorbent.
The chosen of fern tree based on a complex material containing lignin and cellulose as
major constituents (Ho, 2003). Therefore fern tree can be a suitable adsorbent for
sorption of metal cations because of its polar and acid character. The aim of this work
is to study the adsorptions of fern tree for lead ions. The effect of size sorbent, pH and
concentrations of lead ions on the uptake were also studied.

2. Experiment

2.1 Preparations of adsorbent

The raw fern tree (Gleichenia Linearis) that was washed with deionsized water was
then dried in oven at 100oC for 24 hours. It was then grounded and screened through a
sieve to get geometrical size < 500 um, 500-600 um and > 600 um. The fern tree was
stored in an airtight plastic container for all investigations.

2.2 Method

A volume of 50 ml of lead solutions with concentrations of 1 mg/l, 3, mg/l and 5 mg/l

was placed in a 250 ml conical flask. 2 g of fern tree with particle size in range < 500
µm, 500 µm and > 600 µm was then added to the lead ions solutions. pH of the lead
solutions were adjusted to the desired value using 0.2 M NaOH and 0.2 HNO3. A series
of such conical flasks were then shaken at a constant speed of 300 rpm for 1 hour. After
that the samples were centrifuged for 15 minutes to 1 hour. The tree fern was separated
by filtrations through a membrane filter (0.45um). The filtrates were analyzed by
atomic absorptions spectrometry (AAS).

3. Result and Discussions

The removal of lead ions by fern tree was affected by various parameters such as
particle size of adsorbent, pH and concentrations of lead ions solutions.

3.1 Effect of pH

The pH of the aqueous solution is an important controlling parameter in the adsorption

process. Thus, the effect of hydrogen ion concentration was examined from solutions at
pH ranging from 5 to 7. The effect of pH on the removal of lead ions from different
concentrations of lead solutions is shown in Table 1. It is apparent that the percentage
removals of lead ions decrease by the increase the pH value from 5 up to 7. Similar
result were found by Taty-Costodes et. al (2003) and Sehkar et al. (2003) which
reported that the effect of pH on metal removal is decreased when the pH is above than
pH 6. The reductions in metal removal with increasing pH beyond its optimum values
has been attributed to reduced solubility and precipitations.

The reason for the metal ions adsorptions behavior of the adsorbent is the fern
tree surface contains a large number of active sites. The metal uptake depends on these

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active sites as well as on the nature of the metal ions in solutions. The decreasing of
percentage removal is causes by hydrolysis of lead ions. Hydrolysis occurs by the
replacement of water ligands in the inner coordinations sphere with hydroxo groups.
This replacement occurs after the removal of the outer hydrations spheres of metal
cationss (Netzer and Hughes, 1984).
Table 1: Effect of pH and concentrations on percentage removal of lead ion by fern
tree.

Adsorbent at Concentrations of Percentage removal of lead ions (%)

different particle lead (mg/l) pH
size (µ
µm) 5 6 7
< 500 1 83.06 79.84 75.00
3 89.52 88.17 86.29
5 93.55 90.97 90.32

500 - 600 1 75.81 70.16 63.71

3 86.56 84.41 83.60
5 90.85 89.94 89.03

> 600 1 75.00 67.74 62.91

3 85.22 83.60 81.83
5 90.32 89.35 88.39

3.2 Effect of Size Adsorbent

The effect of adsorbent particle size on the removal of lead ions from aqueous is shown
in Figure 1. The highest percentage of lead ions removal at different initial lead ions
concentrations was seen for particle size < 500 µm that is 93.55 percent at pH 5. Higher
removal by smaller size is due to increase in the total surface area that provided more
sorption sites for the metal ions (Quek et. al, 1998).

100

80
% removal

< 500um
60
500-600um
40 > 600um

20

0
1 3 5
Concentration, mg/l

Figure 1: Percentage removal of lead at different size of adsorbent at pH 5 .

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3.3 Effect of Concentrations Metal Ions

Concentrations always correlated with the quantity of metal fixed on the material. The
effect of initial concentration on the removal of lead ions at pH 5 is shown in the Figure
2. It is apparent that the percentage removals of lead ions increase by the increase the
initial concentration from 83.06 % at concentration 1 mg/l to 93.55 % at concentration
5mg/l. The high percentage of removal lead ions was at concentration 5 mg/l. Similar
result was also found by Kumar and Dara (1982) which reported that the absolute metal
uptake by the substrate increased with increased in the initial metal concentrations.

100 93.55
89.52
90 83.06
80
70
% Removal

60 < 500 um
50 500 - 600 um
40 > 600 um
30
20
10
0
1 3 5
Concentration (mg/l)

Figure 2: The effect of initial concentration on the removal of lead ions at pH 5.

The initial metal concentrations have a considerable effect on the binding of the
metal ions to the various substrates. The higher the initial concentration, the larger the
amounts in the uptake capacities of biosorption particles are available. High
concentration of proton the higher removal and it can increase sorption of particles and
increased removal of lead ions.

4. Conclusions

This study discovered the possibility of tree fern as adsorbent for lead ions removal.
The adsorption is depends on the pH solutions, initial concentrations and the adsorbent
particle size at constant temperature. Further experimental work is still necessary to
better understand the mechanisms of metal ions adsorption using fern tree so that an
optimisation of the operative conditions of a potential technological application can be
made.

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5. References

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contaminated water: a review. J. of Hazardous Materials. B97: 219-243.
Henze, M. (1995) Waste Water Treatment Biological and Chemical Process, Springer-
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Water Research, 37: 2323-2330.
Kumar, P. and Dara, S.S. (1982) Utilisations of agricultural waste for decontaminating
industrial/domestic wastewaters from toxic metals. J. of Agricultural wastes, 4:
213-223.
Netzer, A. and Hughes, D.E. (1984) Adsorptions of Cooper, Lead and Cobalt by
Activated Carbon. J. of Water Research, 18: 927-933.
Quek, S.Y., Wase, D.A.J. and Forster, C.F. (1998) The use of sago waste for the
sorptions of lead and cooper. J. of Water SA, 24: 251-256.
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Metals using a Plant Biomass with Reference to Environmental Control. J. of
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Taty-Costodes, V. C., Faudurt, H., Porte, C., and Delacroix, A. (2003). Removal of Cd
(II) and Pb (II) ionss, from aqueous solutionss, by adsorptions onto sawdust of
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