Assessment of the cadmium absorption ability of water hyacinth (Eichhornia crassipes)

Date

3-2013

Degree

Bachelor of Science in Chemistry

College

College of Arts and Sciences (CAS)

Adviser/Committee Chair

Roxas, Pauline Angelic T.

Abstract

The effieciency of water hyacinth (Eichhornia crassipes) for phytoremediation of cadmium was investigated in this study with the main focus on the assessment of the Cd absorption ability of the said species. Dry ashing and wet acid digestion methods were used in sample preparation prior to AAS analysis. Eichhornia crassipes were obtained from National Crop Protection Council (NCPC), Los Baños, Laguna. By exposing the plants to different Cd concentrations, it was found that the plant showed the most significant uptake of Cd at 10 mg/L solution wherein 4.287 ± 0.044 mg Cd was accumulated in its roots and 2.192±0.034 mg Cd in its shoots. It was concluded that at 10 ppm, the plant was able to absorb a significant amount of the metal (79.93 % removal) without exhibiting discoloration of shoots and roots systems. Using 10 mg/L Cd solution, the maximum Cd absorption of the plant was investigated with respect tot he number of days of exposure. It was found that after 14 days, Eichhornia crassipes was able to accumulate cadmium at its maximum (8.644±2.731 mg Cd from its roots and 0.550±0.071 mg Cd from its shoots) with 59.19% Cd removal and the amount of Cd in the medium was significantly low (6.349±0.0142 mg Cd). During the time where most of the translocation factor (TLF)m was 0.0533 thereby indicating that Eichhornia crassipes was a metal excluder. The average rate of cadmium uptake was found to be 1.42 ppm/day. Using the data obtained from the 14-day exposure, it was calculated that approximately 2045 mg of Cd can be recovered from a 10m2 contaminated site with 1482 water hyacinth plants.

Language

English

Location

UPLB Main Library Special Collections Section

Call Number

LG 993.5 2013 C42 /V54

Document Type

Thesis

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