I'm a college student with scope on environmental science, specifically the adsorption of heavy metals in aquatic media.
Currently, I suffered from serious issue of batch adsorption mechanism, which is hindering me from obtain a better result of iron adsorption on my adsorbent. The problem is (1) separation of iron ions to form iron complex with water in low concentration (20 ppm) and in less acid medium (pH > 3) [1][2] and (2) pHPZC value of my adsorbent is at 3.46.
I conducted the adsorption mechanism by diluting stock solution of iron (100ppm or 1000 ppm) to a lower concentration test solution, 20ppm (20mL in volume & pH at 3.46). The addition of adsorbent is at 25mg with a series of adsorption time (10-60min), including magnetic stirring (250rpm). Lastly, I filtered the solution with Whatman filter paper no. 42 (2.5 micron in pore-size), then I sent it to AAS (Atomic Absorption Spectroscopy/Flame method) for trace iron determination. But I still can't manage to obtain a decent result data.
Is anyone notice a mistake above, which lead to indecent data? Does anyone kindly provide me with a proper mechanism? Thank you for your kind response.
