The sorption of heavy metals with corncob hydroxylate–red onion skin resins

The Sorption of Heavy Metals with Corncob Hydroxylate-Red Onion Skin ResinsThe disposal of organic wastes is becoming a serious problem in this part of the world, having arisen through rapid urbanization of a n increased population and public awareness on the quality of the environment, although, in the past, the problems were less severe because of high rural population.Today much of the waste materials generated is cellulosic and over the years there has been active research into uses for these materials, especially crop residues which can serve as substrates for demineralization of waste water.Recently, studies have been reported on the removal of toxic heavy metal ions from effluents by treating with various agricultural products such as tree bark,' peanut waste: cotton: and polymerized red onion skins.'However, these studies concerning programs that convert organic wastes, mainly agricultural residues to useful products, treat each type as an independent entity.As a result many concentrations are deemed too small to support waste conversion systems.If, however, wastes from dissimilar sources are combined, this problem may be overcome.Thus, the combined use of corn-cob hydroxylate (source of furfural) and red onion skin (source of phenolic compounds) deserves serious considerations.The present study is an attempt in this direction.This report, therefore, demonstrates the preparation and properties of ion exchange substrate based on corncobred onion skins as potential material for scavenging heavy metal ions from waste streams. EXPERIMENTAL MaterialsThe dry corncob and red onion skins used in this experiment were procured locally, ground, and sieved over 100-200-mesh screen to separate the fibers which were rejected.All chemical reagents used throughout this work were of the purest grade available except otherwise specified.