Kinetic, isotherm modeling analyses of the adsorption of phenol on activated carbon/alginate composites

Abstract

The present study aimed to synthesize calcium alginate-commercial activated carbon composite beads (CA-AC) and calcium alginate-walnut shell biochar composite beads (CA-WSB) using activated carbon (AC), walnut shell biochar (WSB), and to apply its efficiency in phenol removal. The synthesized samples were characterized by energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS), X-ray fluorescence (XRF) spectrometry. The Brunauer, Emmett, and Teller (BET) method was used to obtain information about the samples' surface area and pore size. The kinetic model of phenol fitted well to the pseudo-second-order kinetic model. The isotherm model of phenol fitted well to the Langmuir isotherm model compared with other models. The maximum adsorption capacity was 76.92, 0.419, 8.130 1.375 mg/g for AC, WSB, CA-AC, CA-WSB.