The Lead Adsorptive Property of Synthesized Activated Carbon Out of Peperomia pellucida (Pansit-pansitan) Leaves

Abstract

INTRODUCTION

Pollution is one of the major problems as of the moment. One of these is water pollution in which harmful substances mix to bodies of water that makes them unsuitable for living things. This study was made to prove that synthesized activated carbon can lower the lead concentration in wastewater and has an objective of determining the lead adsorptive property of Pansit-pansitan (Peperomia pellucida) leaves. Peperomia pellucida was used in this study since it has tannic acid that can adsorb lead.

METHODS

The collected pansit-pansitan leaves were dried and burned to open fire to produce charcoal. They were pulverized with a mortar and a piece of cloth. For the activation, bleach was used instead of calcium chloride. Experimental statistics were used in this study in determining the significant difference between commercial activated carbon and synthesized activated carbon in terms of its ability in adsorbing lead. The researchers used an Ultra Violet-Visible Spectrophotometer Analysis in identifying the adsorptive capacity of synthesized activated carbon out of pansit-pansitan. During testing, there were two samples with three trials the commercial activated carbon and synthesized activated carbon out of pansit-pansitan leaves that were brought to Adamson University Technology Research and Development Center.

RESULTS

With the standard lead solution of 116 mg/g, each sample underwent the UV-Vis Analysis. The commercial activated carbon sample has an average of 79 mg/g while the synthesized activated carbon out of pansit-pansitan has an average of 47 mg/g. A T-test independent was used in this study since the researchers were looking for the significant difference between the synthesized activated carbon out of pansit-pansitan leaves and commercial activated charcoal.

DISCUSSIONS

Since the computed t-value which 429.24 is higher than the calculated t critical value, which is 3.18, the researchers rejected the H0 and accepted the H1 hypothesis, which means that there is a significant difference between commercial activated charcoal and synthesized activated carbon out of pansit-pansitan leaves. The researchers concluded that the synthesized activated carbon out of pansit-pansitan is comparable to the available commercial activated carbon.