Mechanically produced Hazelnut Skin Micro and Nano Biosorbents for the Fast Removal of Lead Ions from Polluted Waters

The work is a feasible study about the performance of woody skin and outer soft shell of Hazelnut for the removal of lead ions from water. The Hazelnut woody skin and soft outer shell are crushed by an innovative ball mill to prepare micro and nano powders. TEM images show that the produced nano powder includes uniform nanoparticles with 8-10 nm average diameters. The produced nanoparticles were used as a suitable and effective biosorbent to remove lead ions from water. Experimental data shows that the adsorption of lead ions on the surface of hazelnut skin nanoparticles is acceptably fitted to Langmuir isotherm model. Based on the Langmuir isotherm, a maximum adsorption capacity of 91 mg g-1 is achieved for adsorption of lead ions on the surface of hazelnut skin nanoparticles. The obtained results showed that the best removal of lead ions can be done under conditions includes 50 ml initial solution, pH=4, 120 mg L-1 initial concentration of lead ions per 70 mg biosorbent for contact time of 20 minutes at room temperature. The adsorbed ions are easily eluted by 1.5 ml 0.7 M HNO3 solution. Under the optimal conditions, preconcentration factor of 200, %RSD of less than 5% with detection limit of 100 ppb are obtained. The effects of some interfering ions such as Fe2+, Cu2+, Mg2+, Zn2+, Mn2+ and Ni2+  on the removal efficiency of lead ions were studied. The presented method is successfully applied for removal and determination of lead ions from real samples.