Green Synthesis of Zinc Oxide Nanoparticles Using Baobab (Adansonia digitata) Leaf Extract for Co(II), Pb(II), and Ni(II) Removal from Synthetic and Industrial Wastewater
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.33003/fjs-2026-1017-6025Keywords:
Baobab(Adansonia digitata), Zinc Oxide Nanoparticles, Cobalt, Lead, Nickel, WastewaterAbstract
This study aimed at synthesizing and characterizing Leaf ZnO nanoparticles from baobab (Adansonia digitata) for adsorption of Co(II), Pb(II) and Ni(II) from wastewater. Green synthesis method was carried out using a mixture 50 ml of 0.02 M zinc acetate dihydrate solution and 50 ml of plant extract under continuous stirring at constant temperature of 70 0C. The ZnO NPs were characterized using XRD, FTIR and SEM-EDX. XRD analysis confirmed the crystallinity of the synthesized ZnO nanoparticles, with crystallite sizes ranging from 12.7nm to 22.4nm. It also shows that Zn-O was the predominant crystalline phase, accounting for 90.3 wt.% ZnO. FTIR analysis showed the presence of a strong band at 551cm-1, while SEM reveals the morphology of the synthesized Nanoparticles. In addition, the EDX analysis revealed Zn-O were the predominant elements present, with zinc accounting for 81.95 wt.%, and oxygen accounted for 17.54 wt.%. The results for treatments of synthetic wastewater was obtained, maximum removal efficiencies of 77.40%, 82.7% and 72.1% were achieved for Co(II), Pb(II) and Ni(II) ions respectively, under optimized conditions of pH 6, 80 min and 200 mg adsorbent dosage. Increasing the initial metal concentration decreased removal efficiency while interfering ions enhanced Co2+ removal but reduced Pb2+ and Ni2+ adsorption. The results for the treatment of industrial wastewater for Co2+, Pb2+ and Ni2+ ions adsorption using the synthesized NPs gave a maximum adsorption efficiencies of 80.10%, 68.33%, and 63.92%, respectively) at the same experimental conditions. The results showed that synthesized ZnO-nanoparticles effectively removed these heavy metals from solution.
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