Corn leaf biomass as a sustainable biosorbent for the efficient removal of crystal violet from contaminated solutions

Water pollution has increased due to human activities; consequently, it is crucial to treat both surface water and groundwater to meet the needs of the population. This study will discuss the use of Corn Leaves (CL) from household waste to remove Crystal Violet (CV) dye from simulated aqueous solutions. The process of removal was explored through a series of batch experiments. In these experiments, the impact of operational parameters such as the pH of the external solution, biomass amount, dye concentration, and contact duration was assessed. Various pre-treatments, including alkaline and acidic, were used to enhance the adsorption capacity. The ideal conditions for achieving maximum removal of CV dye (approximately 98%) from the polluted phase were found to be at a pH of 3.5 with an initial concentration of 30 mg/l, a particle size of 120 μm, a stirring speed of 200 rpm, a temperature of 50 °C, and a dosage of 0.3 g/100 ml. The CV dye adsorption process achieved equilibrium at 30 min. Among the investigated kinetic models, the pseudo-first-order model provided the best fit to the experimental data, with an R 2 value of 0.916 and a calculated equilibrium adsorption capacity of 9.69 mg/g. Equilibrium analysis showed that the Langmuir isotherm provided the best fit, with an R 2 value of 0.938 and a theoretical maximum adsorption capacity q max of 23.98 mg/g. The Freundlich model also showed a good correlation (R 2 = 0.917), indicating that surface heterogeneity may contribute to the adsorption process. The characterization of free and dye-loaded corn leaves was performed using FTIR, which proves that the corn leaves successfully adsorb CV dye from aqueous solution.