Abstract
Pesticide contamination to water bodies is considered as a global concern. This study involves the use of activated carbon synthesized from the shells of Thevetia peruviana shell (TPS) for the removal of the potential pollutant, Methoxychlor (MXC) from water. The TPS was activated using potassium hydroxide and was characterized by pH point zero charge (pHpzc), scanning electron microscope (SEM), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), and Brunauer–Emmett–Teller (BET). The activated material shows a high BET of 394.97 m2/g with a pHpzc of 2. Batch experiments were conducted to investigate the influence of operating conditions such as pH, temperature, adsorbent dosage, initial concentration, and contact time. Under optimum conditions, adsorption of MXC onto TPS had a removal efficiency of 94.90%. The sorption experiment data best fits the pseudo-second-order (PSO) kinetic model (R 2 = 0.999) and also correlated with Langmuir isotherm model (maximum sorption capacity of 197.2 mg/g). The results reveal that TPS can be considered as an excellent adsorbent material for the removal of pesticides and applicable for real waste water treatment.
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