Foxtail Palm Fruits as Potential Activated Carbon for Metamifop Removal

Abstract

The growing demand for rice as a staple food by the expanding human population forces farmers to use substantial pesticide pest control on their crops. Water pollution is a serious problem as a result of overuse of agrochemical pesticides. Nominee-M, a recently created post-emergence formulation herbicide that has been investigated, contains the active component metamifop. Herbicides that protect crops from weed infestation frequently contain this chemical. The purpose of this study was to examine the effectiveness and potential of foxtail palm fruits as a potential source of activated carbon for the elimination of metamifop. Nitric acid (HNO3) was used in the chemical process of chemical activation to create the activated carbon from the foxtail palm fruits. The effect of adsorbent dose used (2 g, 3 g, 4 g and 5 g), contact time (60 mins, 90 mins, 120 mins and 150 mins) and initial metamifop concentration (10 mg/L, 12 mg/L, 14 mg/L, 16 mg/L and 18 mg/L) toward the efficiency of the prepared activated carbon in removing metamifop was studied in this research. The highest percentage removal was 86.65%, obtained at optimized value of 3 g of activated carbon used at 60 minutes of contact time and 10 ppm of initial concentration of metamifop. The study has proven that activated carbon produce from foxtail palm fruit potentially reduce metamifop in water resources that has been contaminated.