Parameter Optimization of Activated Carbon Production from Agave sisalana and Punica granatum Peel: Adsorbents for C.I. Reactive Orange 4 Removal from Aqueous Solution

Abstract

In the present study, activated carbons were prepared from sisal fiber (Agave sisalana sp.) and pomegranate peel (Punica granatum sp.) using phosphoric acid as the activating agent. Both sisal fiber activated carbon (SFAC) and pomegranate peel activated carbon (PPAC) were characterized using methylene blue number, iodine number, BET surface area, SEM, and FTIR. The BET surface area of the SFAC and PPAC were 885 and 686 m2/g, respectively. The adsorption studies using C.I. Reactive Orange 4 dye on the SFAC and PPAC were carried out. The effects of time, initial adsorbate concentration, pH, and temperature on the adsorption were studied. The isotherm studies were carried and it was found that the Langmuir and Freundlich isotherms fit well for the adsorption of RO 4 on SFAC, while adsorption of RO 4 on PPAC is better represented by the Langmuir and Temkin isotherms. Adsorption kinetics of adsorption was determined using pseudo first order, pseudo second order, Elovich and intraparticle diffusion models and it was found that the adsorption process follows pseudo second order model. Thermodynamics parameters such as changes in free energy (ΔG), enthalpy (ΔH), and entropy (ΔS) were determined by using van't Hoff equation. The positive ΔH value indicates that RO 4 dye adsorption on SFAC and PPAC is endothermic in nature.

Punica granatum husk (PGH), a powdered biowaste material for the adsorption of methylene blue dye from aqueous solution

“…In a recent study, Senthilkumar et al [25] reported the use of activated carbon produced from Punica granatum peel to remove C.I. Reactive Orange 4 from aqueous solutions.…”

Agricultural waste peels as versatile biomass for water purification – A review

“…Besides these, several other researchers also examined the suitability of different fruits and vegetables waste peels as adsorbents for the removal of aquatic pollutants [153][154][155][156][157][158][159][160][161][162][163][164][165][166][167][168][169][170][171]. Tables 6 and 7 represent uptake capacities of various peel-based adsorbents for metals and organic pollutants removal from water, respectively.…”

High basicity adsorbents from solid residue of cellulose and synthetic polymer co-pyrolysis for phenol removal: Kinetics and mechanism

“…According to Giles classification, the isotherms belong to the L type however, for the GC carbon it is L2 whereas for C, CPP, CPS carbons the type L4 is observed. The L2 class of isotherms is commonly reported for the adsorption of phenols from aqueous solution [16,21,28,[33][34][35][36]. This is the case when no strong competition between the adsorbate and the solvent for occupying the adsorption sites is observed.…”

“…Despite the fact that in literature many different equations [33,37,[40][41][42][43][44] isotherms, in this work only the Langmuir (Eq. (2)) and Freundlich (Eq.…”

“…These models are the simplest ones but directly give information on the adsorption capacity or heterogeneity factor that allow to study the mechanism of organic compounds adsorption. The use of other equations mostly refers to the search for the equation with best fit [33,[42][43][44][45]. The calculated values of the Langmuir and Freundlich equation's parameters are given in Table 3.…”