REMOVAL OF AMITROLE FROM AQUEOUS SOLUTIONS BY ACID ACTIVATED CLAY

Abstract

In this study, the adsorption behavior of amitrole on acid activated clay (AC) was investigated using a spectrophotometric method to obtain information on the color removal. The adsorption of amitrole from aqueous solutions by AC has been performed using a batch-adsorption technique. The effect of various experimental parameters, such as initial concentration of pesticide, contact time, temperature and pH on the adsorption process, were investigated. Original pH at the beginning was 5. It was observed that the adsorption percentage of amitrole on AC remained practically constant with increasing temperature and contact time of around 3h was sufficient to reach the equilibrium for all temperature. Temkin and Harkins Jura adsorption models were applied to describe the equilibrium isotherms and the isotherm constants were calculated. It was found that the data fitted Temkin adsorption model better than Harkins Jura adsorption model. The present study showed that the AC, abundant low-cost clay (C), can be used as sorbent for the removal of amitrole from aqueous solutions.