Pre-concentration of lead ions from aqueous medium with curcumin modified TiO2 and determination by FAAS

Lead (Pb2+) pollution poses severe healthy and ecological risks to humans. In this thesis; Amorphous TiO2 synthesized by the sol-gel method was modified with curcumin using the wet impregnation technique and lead (Pb2+) ions were successfully removed from aqueous solution with this synthessis material. The synthesized curcumin/a-TiO2 was characterized by XRD, FT-IR, SEM-EDX, BET, DLS, Zeta potential measurements. In addition, the synthesized material was used as an adsorbent in order to separate and concentrate low concentration Pb2+ ions in matrix environments by solid phase extraction (SPE). The batch technique was used to determine the optimum experimental conditions. Pb2+ ions were removed at a rate of 99.96 % during the adsorption time of 30 minutes in a pH:5 solution medium. The results of isotherm study show that the Langmuir model and pseudo second order kinetic can be used to best describe the adsorption behavior of Pb2+ onto the curcumin/a-TiO2. The maximum Langmuir adsorption capacity for Pb2+ removal by curcumin/a-TiO2 was determined to be 564.97 mg g-1. The 3σ detection limit and 10σ quantification limit for Pb2 + were found to be 0.023 μg mL-1 and 0.078 μg mL-1 respectively. All results in the adsorption study were determined by flame atomic absorption spectrometry (FAAS). With the synthesized curcumin/a-TiO2 green-adsorbent, toxic Pb2+ ions were successfully removed from the aqueous medium and pre-concentrated.