Preparation and Characterization of Activated Carbon from Lepironia articulata (Retz.) Domin Waste as an Adsorbent for Methylene Blue Dye Removal from Wastewater

Abstract

In this study, the optimum conditions for using activated carbon from Lepironia articulata (Retz.) Domin waste as an adsorbent were determined to remove dye pollutants from wastewater. The characteristics of the obtained activated carbon were assessed by performing energy dispersive X-ray (EDX), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopic (FTIR) techniques. The best optimum conditions for removing dye pollutants from wastewater were obtained at 30 mg/L methylene blue dye, 0.02 g of adsorbent and a contact time of 90 min. The maximum adsorption capacity of the activated carbon was 69.44 mg/g and the percentage removal achieved was more than 90%. The methylene blue dye adsorption data of the adsorbent were fitted to the Langmuir isotherm model. The prepared adsorbent was also applied for the removal of different colour dyes from real wastewater samples and found that the percentage removal was 71.3%, 62.7%, 66.3%, 68.4% and 72.0% for dark blue dye, red dye, pink dye, sky blue dye and yellow dye, respectively. These results indicated that the obtained activated carbon is highly effective and suitable adsorbent for removing different types of colour dyes and toxic organic substances from the wastewater.