Enhanced Removal of Cobalt(II) Ions from Aqueous Solution Using Thiourea-Impregnated Gigantochloa albociliata Charcoal Powder

Nuraina Shakila Mohd Zahair; Sharizal Hasan; Mohd Lias Kamal

doi:10.56532/mjsat.v6i4.747

Authors

Nuraina Shakila Mohd Zahair Faculty of Applied Science, Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM), 02600 Arau, Perlis, Malaysia
Sharizal Hasan Faculty of Applied Science, Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM), 02600 Arau, Perlis, Malaysia
Mohd Lias Kamal Faculty of Applied Science, Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM), 02600 Arau, Perlis, Malaysia

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.56532/mjsat.v6i4.747

Keywords:

Impregnation, Thiourea, Adsorption, Retort

Abstract

The feasibility of Gigantochloa albociliata (Buluh Madu) charcoal as low-cost adsorbent, effective and locally available material for the removal of cationic of Co(II) ions was investigated. In this study, Gigantochloa albociliata charcoal was impregnated with thiourea as chelating agent. The modification involved impregnation of thiourea into Gigantochloa albociliata charcoal via retort process. The resulting impregnated of Gigantochloa albociliata morphological characteristics for both modified and unmodified were characterize using a Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM). The surface of modified Gigantochloa albociliata charcoal seems to be irregular and uneven, with the present of Thiourea. Energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy analysis (EDX) showing the presence of nitrogen and sulphur in modified of Gigantochloa albociliata charcoal indicating the impregnation successfully occurred. The percentage carbon, oxygen, silica exist in modified Gigantochloa albociliata charcoal slightly decrease compared to unmodified. Further analysis of adsorptivity was carried out by soaking the modified charcoal in Co(II) ions aqueous solution and measure using Inductively Coupled Plasma Atomic Emission Spectroscopy (ICP-OES). To study the adsorptivity of adsorbent, effect of contact time, initial concentration, and pH was used as parameter. The results show that impregnated charcoal has the highest adsorption of Co(II) ions compared with unmodified of Gigantochloa albociliata charcoal. Further study was carried out by analyse equilibrium data using isotherm and kinetic. Freundlich isotherm shows an excellent fit of experiment data may describe the heterogeneous surface account for multilayer adsorption. For kinetic study, pseudo-second order kinetic model show better fit that involving of chemisorption indicates there is electron sharing or transfer between thiourea (N- and S- groups) and Co(II) ions. From the result obtained, it is describe that impregnation of charcoal with thiourea enhance the intake of Co(II) ions.

References

Adeyi, A. A., Ehiokioya, J. U., Anakpoha, C. O., Abdullah, L. C., Lala, M. A., Alias, N. H., Omofoyewa, M. G., & Md Jamil, S. N. A. (2026). Sustainable removal of toxic brilliant green dye from aqueous solution using KMnO4-modified coconut husk based biochar. Discover Sustainability, 7(1). doi: https://doi.org/10.1007/s43621-026-03352-0

Almhana, N. M., Al-Saedi, R., Abaas, I. K., & Al-Tameemi, I. M. (2025). Adsorption of Lead and Cobalt from Aqueous Solution Using Unmodified Date Palm Seeds: Kinetics and Isotherms. Journal of Engineering and Sustainable Development, 29(6), 736–743. doi: https://doi.org/10.31272/jeasd.2865

AlShahrani, A. S. (2024). Thiourea-Modified Porous Activated Carbon for Efficient Adsorption of Lead (II) From Water: Kinetic, Isotherm and Adsorption Studies. Pakistan Journal of Life and Social Sciences (PJLSS), 22(2), 13311–13326. doi: https://doi.org/10.57239/pjlss-2024-22.2.00954

Bayon, L. L. E., Ballesteros, F. C., Choi, A. E. S., Garcia-Segura, S., & Lu, M. C. (2021). Remediation of cobalt from semiconductor wastewater in the frame of fluidized-bed homogeneous granulation process. Journal of Environmental Chemical Engineering, 9(5), 105936. doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jece.2021.105936

Bekchanov, D., Kawakita, H., Mukhamediev, M., Khushvaktov, S., & Juraev, M. (2021). Sorption of cobalt (II) and chromium (III) ions to nitrogen- and sulfur-containing polyampholyte on the basis of polyvinylchloride. Polymers for Advanced Technologies, 32(7), 2700–2709. doi: https://doi.org/10.1002/pat.5209

Chopra, A. K., Kumar Sharma, A., & Kumar, V. (2011). Overview of Electrolytic treatment: An alternative technology for purification of wastewater. Archives of Applied Science Research Arch. Appl. Sci. Res, 3(35), 191–206.

Es-Sahbany, H., Hsissou, R., El Hachimi, M. L., Allaoui, M., Nkhili, S., & Elyoubi, M. S. (2021). Investigation of the adsorption of heavy metals (Cu, Co, Ni and Pb) in treatment synthetic wastewater using natural clay as a potential adsorbent (Sale-Morocco). Materials Today: Proceedings, 45, 7290–7298. doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.matpr.2020.12.1100

Fadali, O., Ebrahiem, E., Farrag, T., & Mahmoud, M. (2013). Treatment of Oily Wastewater Produced From Refinery Processes Using Adsorption Technique. Minia Journal of Engineering and Technology, 32(1), 88–101.

Guo, P., Kong, L., Hu, X., Peng, X., & Wang, X. (2021). Removal of Cl(-I) from strongly acidic wastewater containing Cu(II) by complexation-precipitation using thiourea: Efficiency enhancement by ascorbic acid. Journal of Hazardous Materials, 402(September 2020), 123836. doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhazmat.2020.123836

Hemidouche, S., Boudriche, L., Boudjemaa, A., & Hamoudi, S. (2017). Removal of lead (II) and cadmium (II) cations from water using surface-modified graphene. Canadian Journal of Chemical Engineering, 95(3), 508–515. doi: https://doi.org/10.1002/cjce.22693

Khandaker, S., Kuba, T., Toyohara, Y., Kamida, S., & Uchikawa, Y. (2017). Development of ion-exchange properties of bamboo charcoal modified with concentrated nitric acid. IOP Conference Series: Earth and Environmental Science, 82(1). doi: https://doi.org/10.1088/1755-1315/82/1/012002

Liao, L., Chen, H., He, C., Dodbiba, G., & Fujita, T. (2024). Boron Removal in Aqueous Solutions Using Adsorption with Sugarcane Bagasse Biochar and Ammonia Nanobubbles. Materials, 17(19), 1–23. doi: https://doi.org/10.3390/ma17194895

Mikulášek, P., & Cuhorka, J. (2016). Removal of heavy metal ions from aqueous solutions by nanofiltration. Chemical Engineering Transactions, 47(July), 379–384. doi: https://doi.org/10.3303/CET1647064

Negi, M., Thankachan, V., Rajeev, A., Vairamuthu, M., Arundhathi, S., & Nidheesh, P. V. (2025). Clean and Green Bamboo Magic: Recent Advances in Heavy Metal Removal from Water by Bamboo Adsorbents. Water (Switzerland), 17(3). doi: https://doi.org/10.3390/w17030454

Qiao, H., Zhang, S., Liu, X., Wang, L., Zhu, L., & Wang, Y. (2024). Adsorption characteristics and mechanisms of Cd(II) from wastewater by modified chicken manure biochar. Environmental Science and Pollution Research International, 31(3), 3800–3814. doi: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-023-31341-7

Ray, S. S., Gusain, R., & Kumar, N. (2020). Water purification using various technologies and their advantages and disadvantages. Carbon Nanomaterial-Based Adsorbents for Water Purification, 37–66. doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/b978-0-12-821959-1.00003-9

Samuel, H. S., Okino, I. A., Okibe, G., & Etim, E. E. (2024). Sustainable Wastewater Treatment: Recent Progress in the use of Bio-Waste-Derived Adsorbents for Organic Dye Removal. Asian Journal of Environmental Research, 1(3), 137–151. doi: https://doi.org/10.69930/ajer.v1i3.172

Soliman, N. K., & Moustafa, A. F. (2020). Industrial solid waste for heavy metals adsorption features and challenges; a review. Journal of Materials Research and Technology, 9(5), 10235–10253. doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jmrt.2020.07.045

Thotagamuge, R., Kooh, M. R. R., Mahadi, A. H., Lim, C. M., Abu, M., Jan, A., Hanipah, A. H. A., Khiong, Y. Y., & Shofry, A. (2021). Copper modified activated bamboo charcoal to enhance adsorption of heavy metals from industrial wastewater. Environmental Nanotechnology, Monitoring and Management, 16(August), 100562. doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enmm.2021.100562

Ugwu, E. I., Tursunov, O., Kodirov, D., Shaker, L. M., Al-Amiery, A. A., Yangibaeva, I., & Shavkarov, F. (2020). Adsorption mechanisms for heavy metal removal using low cost adsorbents: A review. IOP Conference Series: Earth and Environmental Science, 614(1). doi: https://doi.org/10.1088/1755-1315/614/1/012166

Wang, L. K., Vaccari, D. A., Li, Y., & Shammas, N. K. (2005). Chemical Precipitation. Physicochemical Treatment Processes, 3, 141–197. doi: https://doi.org/10.1385/1-59259-820-x:141

Wang, Z. D., Yoshida, M., & George, B. (2013). Theoretical study on the thermal decomposition of thiourea. Computational and Theoretical Chemistry, 1017, 91–98. doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.comptc.2013.05.007

Yan, S., Bi, D., Zhang, C., He, Z., Ni, Y., Yue, K., & Liu, S. (2025). ZnCl2-activated S/N-doped biochar for low-temperature NH3-SCR of NOx: Performance and pathway analysis. Green Energy and Resources, 3(2), 1–11. doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gerr.2025.100133

Yang, M., Cui, C., Dai, L., Jiang, S., Lan, J., Guo, R., & Tang, H. (2023). Removal of malachite green by cobalt@iron-doped porous carbon composite derived from CoFe-MOF and bamboo pulp black liquor. Journal of Materials Science: Materials in Electronics, 34(14), 1–19. doi: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10854-023-10565-w

Zhang, Q., Zhuang, S., & Wang, J. (2020). Biosorptive removal of cobalt(II) from aqueous solutions using magnetic cyanoethyl chitosan beads. Journal of Environmental Chemical Engineering, 8(6), 104531. doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jece.2020.104531

Zhu, F., Kong, L., He, M., Fang, D., Hu, X., & Peng, X. (2023). Effective reduction and recovery of As(III) and As(V) from alkaline wastewater by thiourea dioxide: Efficiency and mechanism. Water Research, 243(June), 120355. doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.watres.2023.120355