fused nanogranular polyaniline-sawdust (cocos nucifera) composite for lead adsorption application

The problem of heavy metal contamination in industrial effluents requires new and environment-friendly agents for wastewater treatment. in this study, we developed fused nanogranular polyaniline-sawdust (pani/sd) composites for lead ion removal through the adsorption process. to prevent the aggregation of polyaniline (pani), coconut (cocos nucifera) sawdust (sd), an agricultural waste, was used as a substrate via in situ chemical polymerization in varied sawdust-to-aniline ratios. the scanning electron micrographs (sem) of the obtained pani/sd composites revealed a nanogranular structure that indicated the complete coating of polyaniline on sawdust. furthermore, the pani/sd composites were verified to be in the emeraldine oxidation state through fourier-transform infrared (ft-ir) spectroscopy. among the formulations studied, the pani/sd composite with a sawdust-to-aniline ratio of 1.2 g/ml was found to have the highest adsorption capacity of 738.9 mg/g. this study presents the promising potential of pani/sd as a novel and cost-effective adsorbent material to remove lead from contaminated water.