Chicken Feather Fibers as Adsorbents for the Removal of Heavy Metals from Water

This paper investigates the use of chicken feather fibers (CFFs) as adsorbents for the removal of heavy metals from the synthetic wastewater. The CFFs were prepared using three different chemicals: NaOH (0.2, 0.4, 0.6 M), Epi, and EA-Epi. Structural and material characterization of CFFs before and after the adsorption process was done using SEM/EDX, FT-IR, and N2 physisorption studies. Batch experiments were performed to determine the optimum operating parameters for the highest removal of manganese (Mn) and zinc (Zn) from the synthetic wastewater. Results obtained from the optimization study showed that NaOH-0.2/CFFs had the highest removal efficiency for Mn and Zn, at optimum condition; 0.50 g mass of adsorbent, 23.64 h contact time, and 5.33 mg/L initial concentration of Mn and Zn. Finally, results obtained from the adsorption isotherm and kinetic adsorption studies showed that adsorption process fitted best Langmuir isotherm model and the kinetics followed a pseudo-second-order model.