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The adsorption of methylene blue from aqueous solution onto activated carbon prepared from cola nut shell has been investigated under batch mode. The influence of major parameters governing the efficiency of the process such as, solution pH, sorbent dose, initial concentration, and contact time on the removal process was investigated. The time-dependent experimental studies showed that the adsorption quantity of methylene blue increases with initial concentration and decreasing adsorbent dosage. The equilibrium time of 180 min was observed and maximum adsorption was favoured at pH 3.5. The dye removal using 0.1 g of adsorbent was more than 90%. This dosage (0.1 g) was considered as the optimum dosage to remove methylene blue from aqueous solutions. The equilibrium adsorption data were analyzed by the Freundlich, Langmuir adsorption isotherm models. The kinetics of methylene blue solution was discussed by pseudo-first-order, pseudo-second-order, and Elovich models. The adsorption process follows the Elovich rate kinetic model, having a correlation coefficient in the range between 0.9811 and 1.

In this work we report on the progress that has been made towards gaining an understanding of the molecular mechanism of 1,3-dipolar cycloadditions using the bonding evolution theory (BET). A detailed analysis of the flow of electron density along the reaction pathway of the formal 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition reaction between cyclic nitrones (pyrroline-1-oxide and 2,3,4,5 tetrahydropyridine-1-oxide) and ethyl acrylate, as a case study, allowed the nature of the molecular mechanisms to be characterized.The present study provides a deep insight into the reaction mechanism, based on the electron density rearrangements given by the structural stability domains, and their connection with the bond breaking/forming processes along the reaction pathway.Electron pushing formalism is a powerful tool to describe chemical reactivity. Here, we show how the Lewis structures can be recovered and how curly arrows describe electron density transfers in chemical reaction mechanisms based on the BET results. The reaction mechanism is described by four consecutive events taking place as the reaction progresses: 1) the population of the initial N−C double bond is transferred to the N and C atoms; 2) the population of the initial double C-C bond is transferred to the C atoms.Along the ortho pathway the next steps are: 3) the C−C bond-forming, and 4) the O-C 2 bond-forming process. The order of 3) and 4) is inverted in the meta channel. Based on the sequence of the structural stability domains along the intrinsic reaction coordinate, a new synchronicity index is proposed, allowing us to classify and quantify the (a)synchronicity of the 1,3-DC reactions and, therefore, the nature of the reaction mechanism.3

The removal of cadmium(II) ions from aqueous solution by adsorption on kaolinite (KAO.1) and metakaolinite (MKB) was investigated depending on the initial concentration, adsorbents dosage, initial pH of solution, and contact time. The influences of those factors have been experimentally verified by a batch method at (27±3 °C). These results have showed that the amount of cadmium(II) ions adsorbed increases with increased contact time and that equilibrium adsorption is reached in 10 minutes, the optimum value of pH was 8.0 and the effect of absorbent dose for the uptake of cadmium(II) ions by kaolinite and metakaolinite was found to decrease by increasing the adsorbent dose. The experimental results obtained are described by Langmuir, Freundlich and Dubinin-Kaganer-Radushkevich (D-K-R) isotherm models. The Langmuir and D-K-R adsorption isotherms described the adsorption data very well. The maximum adsorption capacity; Q max , determined from the Langmuir adsorption isotherm studies was found to be 7.407 and 9.174 mg/g for KAO.1 and MKB respectively. Pseudo-first order, pseudo-second order, Elovich and the intraparticular diffusion kinetic models were used to describe the kinetic data obtained. The experimental data fitted well to the pseudo-second order kinetic model, which indicates that 12Jean Serge ESSOMBA et al.chemical adsorption is the rate-limiting step. The results indicate that kaolinite and metakaolinite adsorb cadmium(II) ions efficiently and could be employed as a low-cost alternative in waste water treatment for the elimination of cadmium(II) ions.

In this study, activated carbons were prepared from oil palm shells by physicochemical activation. The methodology of experimental design was used to optimize the preparation conditions. The influences of the impregnation ratio (0.6–3.4) and the activation temperature between 601°C and 799°C on the following three responses: activated carbon yield (R/AC-H3PO4), the iodine adsorption (I2/AC-H3PO4), and the methylene blue adsorption (MB/AC-H3PO4) results were investigated using analysis of variance (ANOVA) to identify the significant parameters. Under the experimental conditions investigated, the activation temperature of 770°C and impregnation ratio of 2/1 leading to the R/AC-H3PO4of 52.10%, theI2/AC-H3PO4of 697.86 mg/g, and the MB/AC-H3PO4of 346.25 mg/g were found to be optimum conditions for producing activated carbon with well compromise of desirability. The two factors had both synergetic and antagonistic effects on the three responses studied. The micrographs of activated carbons examined with scanning electron microscopy revealed that the activated carbons were found to be mainly microporous and mesoporous.