Study of the Removal of Basic Blue-41 from Simulated Wastewater By Activated Carbon Prepared from Discarded Jute Fibre

Abstract

In this work, we reported a facile hydrothermal process to fabricate activated carbon (AC) from waste jute fibre. Sequential chemical and thermal activation have been introduced to form a highly functionalized and porous structure. The prepared AC was characterized by Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscopy (FESEM), X-ray Powder Diffraction (XRD), and Raman Spectroscopy. A hierarchical porous 3D cage-like microstructure was observed from FESEM. Non-linear highly disordered structure and low crystallinity were confirmed by XRD and Raman Spectroscopy. The synthesized AC was then used for batch adsorption study for the removal of an industrial toxic dye, basic blue 41 (BB41). The dependence of the adsorption process on different factors e.g., pH, contact time, and initial concentration has been investigated to find the optimum process conditions. At pH 8, maximum removal of 90 % was achieved. The adsorption was rapid for the first 30 minutes and reaches equilibrium at 70 minutes. Adsorption kinetics were interpreted by pseudo 1st and 2nd order kinetics, and it was best demonstrated by the later one. Langmuir and Freundlich isotherm models were linearized with experimental data; maximum adsorption capacity of 161.30 mg/g was calculated from the Langmuir model, which depicts the actual adsorption capacity.