Investigating the Potential of Cadmium Ions Removal from Aqueous Solutions using Date-palm Leaf Ash

Annually, large amount of date-palm leafs are produced as waste products of agriculture in Iran. In this study, the potential of date-palm leaf ashes as an inexpensive adsorbent for Cd(II) removal from aqueous solutions has been investigated.

The studied variables were pH (2-7), Cd (II) ion concentrations (50 – 350 mg/l) and adsorbent dose (0.1 – 14 g/l) in batch systems.

The optimum pH for the removal of Cd (II) ions was equal to 4. Investigation of the effect of adsorbent dose showed that the removal efficiency increased with the increase of adsorbent dose from 0.1 to 11 g/l, and after that the removal efficiency was stabled with the increase of adsorbent dose. The highest removal efficiency was obtained at 60 minutes in 100 mg/l Cd(II) concentration. Discussion and

According to results, optimum removal efficiency of Cd(II) in pH 4, adsorbent dose of 11 g/l and Cd(II) ions concentration of 100 mg/l was obtained as 92.36%. It was concluded that the date-palm leaf ash had a good potential as an adsorbent for the removal of toxic heavy metals, such as cadmium, from aqueous solutions.