Christica. et al Asian Journal of Pharmaceutical Research and Development.

2018; 6(5): 01-04

Asian Journal of Pharmaceutical Research A

and Development J
P
(An International Peer-Reviewed Journal of Pharmaceutical Research and Development) R
© 2013-18, publisher and licensee AJPRD, This is an Open Access article which permits unrestricted D
non-commercial use, provided the original work is properly cited

Open Access Available online at www.ajprd.com Research Article

ACTIVATED CARBON UTILIZATION FROM CORN COB
(Zea mays) AS A HEAVY METAL ADSORBENT IN
INDUSTRIAL WASTE
IS. Christica*1, Muchlisyam2, R. Julia3
1Graduate Student, Faculty of Pharmacy, Universitas Sumatera Utara, Medan, 20155 Indonesia.
2Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry, Faculty of Pharmacy, Universitas Sumatera Utara, Medan,Indonesia.
3Department of Pharmaceutical Technology, Faculty of Pharmacy, Universitas Sumatera Utara, Medan,

Indonesia.

ABSTRACT
Corn is a diet staple for many people in the world. It’s found as a side dish, in soup, in casseroles, and more. The
use of corn as a food ingredient also increase corn production which is also leaves cobs waste that has not been
optimally utilized. Therefore to increase the economic value and utilization of this plant, the corn cobs can be
utilized as a bio absorbent through activation process. The purpose of this study was to reduce the concentration
of heavy metal using activated carbon from corn cobs and also to determine the effect of the addition of activated
carbon in various concentrations to heavy metal content. Determination of heavy metal absorption of Ferrous,
Copper and Lead in industrial waste was using Inductively Coupled Plasma (ICP). Result showed that addition of 1
gram corn cob activated carbon decreased level of ferrous, copper and lead as much as 60.20%; 59.24% and
59.67% respectively. The addition of 1.5 gram corn cob activated carbon decreased level of ferrous, copper and
lead as much as 80.01%, 79.5% and 79.89 % respectively It could be conculded that activated carbon form corn
cobs decreased heavy metal content in industrial waste.
Keywords: Corn Cob, Industrial Waste, Ferrous, Copper, lead, Inductively Coupled Plasma.

Article Info: Received: 17 Aug,2018; Review Completed: 8 Set,2018; Accepted; 07 Oct, 2018; Available online: 20 Oct,2018

Cite this article as:

Christica IS., Muchlisyam , Julia R., Activated Carbon Utilization From Corn Cob (Zea Mays) As A
Heavy Metal Adsorbent In Industrial Waste, Asian Journal of Pharmaceutical research and
Development.2018; 6(5):01-04 DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.22270/ajprd.v6i5.411

*Address for Correspondence

IS. Christica,Graduate Student, Faculty of Pharmacy, Universitas Sumatera Utara, Medan, Indonesia,

INTRODUCTION
chelating chemical reactions and adsorption4. Activated

C
orn (Zea mays) is the second largest agricultural
commodity subsequent to rice commodity in carbon is highly adsorptive medium that has a complex
Indonesia1. North Sumatera province is the structure composed of atoms carbon5. Adsorption occurs
largest area which producing corn in indonesia2. The corn in pores slightly larger than the molecules that are being
production in indonesia increace from 12 million tons in adsorbed, which is why it is very important to match the
2014 to 17 million tons in 20163. The use of corn as a molecule which trying to adsorb with the pore size of the
food ingredient also increase corn production which is activated carbon. These molecules will trapped in the
also leaves cobs waste that has not been optimally structure of carbon internal pore of by Van Der Waals
utilized. Therefore to increase the economic value and Forces or other bonds of attraction and accumulate into a
utilization of this plant, the corn cobs can be utilized as a solid surface6.
basic material of activated carbon as bio adsorbent
Activated carbon is widely used in treatment of drinking
through activation process.
water. Activated carbon can remove a varios compounds,
Activated carbon, as known as activated charcoal, is a including heavy metals. In waste water treatment,
form of processed carbon to have small and low-volume activated carbon plays an important role in treatment
pores which increase the surface area available for processes, where it is used to remove organic and some
inorganic substances7

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Christica. et al Asian Journal of Pharmaceutical Research and Development. 2018; 6(5): 01-04

Industrial waste is the residual waste generated from the and added aqua demineralisation to the mark line.
production process in an industry, where serious handling Filtered with Whatman filter paper No 42.
is needed for industrial waste because the bad impact on
Determination Fe, Cu and Pb procedure using
the envferrousment.Large amounts of metal-
Inductively Coupled Plasma (ICP)
contaminated waste water, such as Cu, Fe and Pb are
Determination method of Fe, Cu and Pb level was using
the most hazardous among the chemical-intensive
method based on the previous study15. Inductively
industries. Because of their high solubility in the aquatic
Coupled Plasma aparatus showed in figure 1.
envferrousments, heavy metals can be absorbed by living
organisms and it was non biodegredable product8. Once
heavy metals enter the food chain, large concentrations of
heavy metals may accumulate in the human body9.
The study illustrates that the long-term exposure of the
body to ferrous, lead and copper is one of the diseases
triggers such as anemia, hypertension, down syndrome,
cardiovascular desease, renal function disorder,
carcinogenic disorders, encelopathy and peripheral
neuropathy 10-13. Because of that, it is necessary to
conduct research on the effect of activated carbon from
corn cob (Zea mays) as a heavy metal adsorbent in
industrial waste.
MATERIAL AND METHODS
Materials
Figure 1. Inductively Coupled Plasma aparatus
Corn Cob (Zea mays), Hydrogen Peroxide Acid (H2O2)
in concentration 65%,aqua bidest, aqua demineralisation, RESULTS
Nitric acid 5 N, liquid waste of palm oil, copper standard
solution 1000 mcg / ml, ferrous standard solution Determination Calibration curve
1000mcg / ml, lead standard solution Determination calibration curves of Ferrous,Copper and
Lead by measuring standard solution at wavelength
Apparatus
248.3, 324.8 and 283.3 nm respectively . It can be seen
The measurements were performed with a inductively in the following figure2, figure 3 and figure 4.
coupled plasma (ICP) spectrometer.
Preparation of corn cob
Corncobs (Zea mays) are separated from the seeds and
then sliced into smaller sizes (± 0.5 cm) then dried at
105ºC for 24 hours .
Preparation of activated carbon
25 grams of dried mash corn cobs added with activator
H2O23% 5%, 7%, 15% as much as 17.5 ml then dried at
105ºC for 24 hours. Thereafter put it in the furnace, and
then heated at a temperature of 450ºC with a increasing
temperature of 5ºC/minute. After reaching a temperature
of 450ºC, hold for 3 hours. The charcoal that is formed is
taken and cooled at room temperature (open air), Figure 2. Calibration curves of Fe
subsequently washed several times with ion-free water
until there is no hydrogen peroxide content in the
charcoal14.
Preparation of liquid waste solution test
Liquid waste is divided into 4 groups, each group consist
of 100 ml liquid waste and 25 grams of activated carbon
are added respectively. Then shake with Orbital Shaker
for 3 hours, thereafter it is filtered using whatman paper
No. 42 and stored in a container.
Destruction procedure
20 ml solution each group was pipetted and put it into
erlenmeyer and then added 5 ml HNO3 65% and left ± 24
hours then heated using a hot plate until the solution
turned clear and nitrate vapor depleted at 100ºC,then Figure 2. Calibration curves of Cu
cooled. The solution is put into a 50ml measuring flask

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Christica. et al Asian Journal of Pharmaceutical Research and Development. 2018; 6(5): 01-04
Based on the figure 1, 2 and 3, the equation of the regression line for
ferrous is Y = 0.830242421X + 0.738392555; copper is Y =
0.969629834X + 0.05109759 and lead is Y = 0.961333272X 0.0975.
Based on the figure 1, 2 and 3, there is a linear relationship between
concentration and absorbance with a correlation coefficient (r) for
ferrous , copper and lead are 0.9999. According to Ermer (2005), the
value of r ≥ 0.997 indicates a linear correlation between X
(concentration) and Y (absorbance).

Determination of Ferrous, Copper and Lead Levels in

the samples
Determination of Fe, Cu and Pb content was determined
based on the calibration curve regression equation of each
solution.. Results of Fe, Cu and Pb determination levels
in industrial liquid waste showed in table 1
Figure 3. Calibration curves of Pb
. Table 1. Determination of Fe, Cu and Pb levels in industrial liquid waste
NO Sampel Ferrous level (mg/L) Copper level (mg/L) Lead level (mg/L)
1 Without 4.9358 5.943 5.4955
Activated Carbon
2 Addition 1.9641 2.422 2.216
1 gr Activated Carbon
3 Addition 0,9865 1,2181 1,1051
1.5 gr Activated Carbon

Table 1 showed the decreased levels of Fe, Cu and Pb 5. Amin MT, Alazba AA. Comparative study of the absorptive
after addition 1 gram of activated carbon, it can be potential of raw and activated carbon Acacia nilotica for
Reactive Black 5 dye. Environmental Earth Sciences. 2017 Aug
calculated that the decreased level percentage of Fe, Cu 1;76(16):581.
and Pb was 60.20 %, 59.24% and 59.67% respectively. In 6. Singh PP. Environmental remediation by nanoadsorbents-based
addition of 1.5 gram of activated carbon, the decreased polymer nanocomposite. InNew Polymer Nanocomposites for
level percentage of Fe, Cu and Pb was 80.01%, 79.5% Environmental Remediation 2018 (pp. 223-241).
and 79.89 % respectively. Increasing the amount of 7. Korotta-Gamage SM, Sathasivan A. A review: Potential and
activated carbon also increases the percentage of heavy challenges of biologically activated carbon to remove natural
organic matter in drinking water purification process.
metal absorbed. These results indicate that the activated Chemosphere. 2017 Jan 1;167:120-38.
carbon from corn cobs can reduce the heavy metal 8. Azimi A, Azari A, Rezakazemi M, Ansarpour M. Removal of
content of Fe, Cu and Pb which are heavy metals that are heavy metals from industrial wastewaters: a review.
widely distributed in industrial waste. The use of ChemBioEng Reviews. 2017 Feb;4(1):37-59
activated carbon in the process of industrial waste 9. Li T, Wan Y, Ben Y, Fan S, Hu J. Relative importance of different
purification could be a good option because of its effect exposure routes of heavy metals for humans living near a
municipal solid waste incinerator. Environmental Pollution.
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