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Using Modified Activated Carbon to Remove Methylene Blue and Rhodamine B from Wastewater

Water contamination by dyes is a worldwide problem. There is, however, limited information on the adsorption of rhodamine B (RhB) and methylene blue (MB) by activated carbon modified by ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid (EDTA). This study aimed to remove MB and RhB from industrial effluent by palm kernel shell modified activated carbon. The specific surface area (SL), and the zero charge pH (pHpzc) for unmodified activated carbon (AC) and modified activated carbon (AC-EDTA) were determined. The AC and AC-EDTA were also characterized by Raman spectroscopy and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR). In the synthetic solutions and real effluents, the batch experiments were used to evaluate the MB and RhB adsorption capabilities by AC and AC-EDTA. The pHpzc values were 5.4 and 4.1 for AC, and AC-EDTA, respectively. The specific surface areas were found to be 756 m2/g and 538 m2/g for AC and AC-EDTA, respectively. The FTIR results indicated that C-N, N-H, and C=O functional groups were introduced onto the surface of activated carbon after in situ EDTA modification. The degree of graphitization (R) values were 0.63 and 0.78 for AC and AC-EDTA, respectively. The study indicated that the second-order and Langmuir models best fitted MB and RhB adsorption. In the synthetic solution, methylene blue maximum adsorption capacities (Qmax) were 5.5 mg/g and 7.40 mg/g for AC, and AC-EDTA, respectively. Rhodamine B’s maximum adsorption capacities were 3.82 mg/g, and 7.11 mg/g for AC, and AC-EDTA, respectively. In the industrial effluent, the methylene blue removals percentages by AC and AC-EDTA were 59.83% and 79.98%, respectively. Those of rhodamine B were 12.9% and 58.71%, respectively for AC and AC-EDTA. Thus, the MB and RhB adsorption capacities were enhanced by AC-EDTA.

Palm Shell Kernel, Activated Carbon, Ethylenediaminetetraacetic Acid, Methylene Blue, Rhodamine B, Real Effluent

N’guessan Louis Berenger Kouassi, Abollé Abollé, Adjoumani Rodrigue Kouakou, Victor Gogbe, Albert Trokourey. (2023). Using Modified Activated Carbon to Remove Methylene Blue and Rhodamine B from Wastewater. American Journal of Physical Chemistry, 12(3), 30-40. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ajpc.20231203.11

Copyright © 2023 Authors retain the copyright of this article.
This article is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

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