This work proposed mercury elimination using agricultural waste (Allium Cepa L.). The biomass removed 99.4% of mercury, following a pseudo-second order kinetics (r2 = 0.9999). The Langmuir model was adequately fitted to the adsorption isotherm, thereby obtaining the maximum mercury adsorption capacity of 111.1 ± 0.3 mg g-1. The biomass showed high density of strong mercury chelating groups, thus making it economically attractive. Also, the implementation of a mercury-selective electrode for continuous determination in real time is proposed; this electrode replaces techniques like atomic absorption spectroscopy, thus it can be applied to real time studies. This work therefore presents a new perspective for removing mercury(II) from contaminated water for environmental remediation.
Keywords: Biosorbent; Breakthrough; ISE; Isotherm; Mercury adsorption.
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