Co-carbonization of hazelnut shell and lemna minor: its effectiveness in adsorption of crystal violet from an aqueous solution

Abstract

ABSTRACT Co-carbonization of waste biomass is of great interest to reduce production costs and increase carbon yields. In this study, it was investigated to produce cost-effective and high carbon yield activated carbons by carbonizing lemna minor (LM) and hazelnut shell (HS) wastes together. In this context, LM and HS were co-carbonized at 800°C, 100 mL/min of N2 for 90 min, and their carbonization yields, adsorption capacities, physical and chemical properties were determined. X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), ultraviolet-visible spectroscopy (UV), energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), ultimate and proximate analysis were performed. According to XRD analysis, HS is amorphous, LM is semi-crystalline, but the crystalline structure increased after co-carbonization. Based on the FTIR analysis LM, HS, and cLM/HS contain various functional groups, including O-H, C-H, and C-O. The adsorption capacity and CV removal, obtained by co-carbonized LM and HS (cLM/HS), are 87.95 mg/g and 88%, respectively. Its specific surface area is 745 m2/g. This study showed that the cLM/HS is a cost-effective adsorbent for the removal of crystal violet dye.