Abstract:
South Kalimantan has a gold mining industry that produces waste that can pollute the
environment and is harmful to public health. One of the hazardous contaminants
contained in the gold mining industry is mercury. This study aims to make biosorbent of
ketapang leaves which will be used to reduce mercury content in gold mining waste.. The
study began with washing the ketapang leaves to remove the impurities and then dried 3-
4 days under the sun to reduce the water content. The next step is a simple carbonization
process by using furnaces at a temperature of 300 o
C for 30 minutes as the optimum
operating condition so that activated carbon is formed called BDK. In the final stage, the
biosorbent of ketapang leaves with 0.1 N citric acid was activated to produce biosorbent
of ketapang leaves called BDK-COOH. The test results were carried out by SEM and
FTIR analysis. The results of SEM analysis showed biosorbents that form large and large
pores caused by carbonization and activation processes. Likewise, the results of FTIR
analysis formed an active functional group to absorb heavy metals in terms of shifting
absorption bands shown by FTIR. Based on analysis known that ketapang leaves can be
used to reduce mercury waste in gold mining.
