ADSORPTION OF HEAVY METAL MIXTURE (LEAD, ARSENIC,CADMIUM) BY DRIED BREAD FRUIT HUSK

Breadfruit (Treculia Africana) is used as food plant and for various other traditional uses.Heavy metals are defined as the natural elements characterized by their high atomic mass and their high density of about 5g/cm3.They occur in low concentration but they can be seen everywhere on the crust of our planet. it is important to study the percentage adsorbance of potentially neurotoxic contaminants like lead, arsenic, cadmium using breadfruit husk which is an agricultural waste food products. The powdered breadfruit husk was subjected for sieve analysis after which particle sizes of 425μ m,850um and 2000μm were used for adsorption studies. The solutions were analyzed using the Atomic Absorption Spectrometer for the adsorption of heavy metal in the mixture (lead, arsenic and cadmium)by the bioabsorbent. Our study showed that the percentage adsorbance of lead was generally high in most of the tested samples with an adsorption capacity of 0.028g/l. The percentage adsorbance of lead was found to be much higher than those found in arsenic and cadmium. However, arsenic showed a high percentage adsorbance (80%) at 3hours. The percentage adsorbance varies greatly with the particle size and the contact time.Using the Langmuir isotherm model, the calculated RL value for the adsorption of Lead Arsenic and cadmium is within the range which indicates a favorable adsorption of the heavy metal:onto the breadfruit husk. Our study has shown that breadfruit husk is an effective and low-cost adsorbent material used fc adsorption of lead, arsenic and cadmium occurring as a mixture of contaminants.