Pseudo-stem banana fiber as a potential low-cost adsorbent to remove methylene blue from synthetic wastewater

Abstract

In this work, pseudo-stem banana (Musa acuminata) (PBF) fiber was utilized as a potential low-cost natural adsorbent to uptake methylene blue (MB) dye from synthetic wastewater by batch adsorption process. Different adsorption factors like contact time, pH, initial concentration, and adsorbent dosage were explored and found that the separation process is strongly pH dependent. Additionally, the adsorption data were fitted with various adsorption isotherms like Langmuir, Freundlich, Temkin, and Dubinin–Radhushkevich models to detect the adsorption equilibrium phenomena. Reaction kinetics was inspected using pseudo-first-order and second-order kinetic models. Mass transfer and intra-particle diffusion analyses indicate the adsorption mechanism of the system described particularly in the context. Furthermore, scanning electron spectroscopy (SEM) and Fourier transformed infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) were conducted to get the morphology and surface properties of the adsorbent, respectively. As a result, the as-prepared banana fiber can be proposed as a cheap suitable adsorbent to separate dyestuffs from industrial wastewater.