Removal of rhodamine B from aqueous solution by adsorption on corn cobs activated carbon

Abstract

<p>In the present study, adsorption experiments were carried out to investigate the removal of rhodamine B from an aqueous solution using chemically activated carbon from corn cobs, a cheaper adsorbent. The characteristics of carbon were determined using X-ray diffraction, SEM, iodine number, pHpzc, and the Boehm titration method. The results show that the prepared activated carbon is amorphous, microporous, and generally acidic on the surface. The kinetic study of the adsorption of rhodamine B on this carbon was carried out, and the rate of sorption was found to conform to pseudo-second-order kinetics with 80 min as equilibrium time. The equilibrium adsorption revealed that the experimental data fitted better to the Langmuir isotherm model for removing rhodamine B. The interaction rhodamine B-activated carbon is mainly chemisorption type. The optimal conditions of rhodamine B removal onto the carbon of this study are mass of carbon = 0.3 g and pH = 3.15. The maximum monolayer adsorption capacity for rhodamine B removal was found to be 5.92 mg.g<sup>-1</sup>. This study has shown that the prepared activated carbon makes it possible to effectively clean up wastewater contaminated by rhodamine B with a removal efficiency of up to 99.60% for 300 mg of AC in 25 mL of the rhodamine B solution (5 mg.L<sup>-1</sup>).</p>