Turmeric: A Biosorbent for Toxic Metals

Adsorption of metal ions by turmeric powder may be used as a natural remedy for sequestration of toxic metals, which are ingested through daily food intake. In this work, the ability of turmeric powder to remove copper(II) and cadmium(II) ions from aqueous solutions was studied by conducting a series of batch adsorption experiments. Surface properties of turmeric powder were examined by potentiometric titration, modelling, IR spectroscopy, Scanning Election Microscopy(SEM) and Electron Dispersion Spectroscopy(EDS). It was found that percent adsorption increased with increasing contact time, pH and adsorbent amount, whereas it decreased on increasing initial metal ion concentration. Langmuir, Freundlich, D-R and Temkin models were employed to study equilibrium isotherms.Effect of temperature on adsorption of Cu(II) and Cd(II) onto turmeric powder was also investigated in order to understand sequestrating behaviour of turmeric powder