A SYSTEMATIC APPROACH FOR THE SEPERATION OF IRON PARTICLES IN SOLUBLE STATE USING LEAF EXTRACT

The discharge of waste water, which contains many minerals like iron, magnesium, zinc etc., from various foundries, steel, dyeing and chemical industries; and treatment plants have substantial effects on the environment and the agricultural lands. Among these metallic elements, iron nanoparticles (FeNPs) have promising advantage that can combat environmental pollution. The interest in nano scale zero-valent iron in environmental remediation is increasing due to the reactivity of nanoscale iron having a large surface area to volume ratio. Though various chemical methods are available for the synthesis of iron nanoparticles, the separation of iron nanoparticles by green route is encouraged as they find various applications in treating the industrial sites contaminated with chlorinated organic compounds and in preventing the ground contaminations. In this project, extracts from various leaves such as Azadirachta indica (neem), Carica papaya (papaya), Punica granatum (pomegranate), Atrocarpus altilis (jackfruit) and Mussaendaerythrophylla (bougainvillea) were used. Randomly, 0.02M ferric chloride solution was prepared as base solution. The reaction between ferric chloride solution and leaf extract have been monitored under UV - Visible spectrophotometer. The effect of various parameters i.e., Dosage, Contact time and pH on the separation of iron nanoparticles in soluble state was studied, by measuring the Absorbance values. The percentage extraction of iron achieved by each leaf extract was determined and finally a comparison among the various leaf extracts used was made and the one which gives the maximum percentage of iron extraction was found out