Application of electrical conductivity method for adsorption of lead ions by rice husk ash

Abstract The potential of hydrogen (pH) has limitations when analyzing the behaviors of contaminated fluids associated with pollutant concentrations. This study proposed electrical conductivity to assess the removal rate of contaminants while considering their concentration. A lead aqueous solution is used to induce heavy metal contamination, and Rice husk ash is used as an absorbent to stabilize the contaminated material. The absorbent concentrations increased with a constant lead concentration of 30 ppm, and the change in concentration over time is observed by the electrical conductivity and pH. The Atomic Absorption spectrometer (AA spectrometer) is also used to obtain the lead concentration as a reference value. The converted loss exhibited similar trends and however, the ability of pH to provide information related to concentration is limited. This study demonstrates that the selected method can be directly used to assess the purification of contaminated materials while considering changes in concentration.