FABRICATION OF LOOFAH SPONGE AS AN EFFECTIVE NATURAL CHROMIUM SEQUESTRANT

Abstract

Loofah sponge is a natural heavy metals sequestrant, can be further improved using the chemical treatments. In this study loofah sponges were modified with sodium hydroxide, acetic acid, sequestering agent and wetting agents. The loofah sponge showed increased interfacial bonding with composite materials and also showed increased mechanical strength than untreated loofah sponge. Characterization techniques were employed to investigate the SSGP-pretreated loofah sponge including ASTM-D570, FTIR, SEM, SEM-EDX, TGA (thermogravimetry analysis), XRD (X-ray diffraction spectra) and Inductively Coupled Plasma Optical Emission Spectrometry (ICP-OES). The FTIR and SEM examination revealed that, waxes and contaminants removed, and heavy metals adsorption on the loofah sponge noted in SEM-EDX image. The ICP-OES analysis revealed that pretreated loofah sponge adsorbed about 39 mg/g of chromium. This study proved that pretreated loofah sponges adsorbed about 12.4% more chromium than untreated loofah sponge. so pretreated loofah sponge, an environmental-based green technology can be used as an effective bio-carrier for heavy metals contaminated effluents. This study supports sustainable development goals of clean water and sanitation and recommends using natural fiber-loofah sponge for large scale application.