Synthesis of high surface area activated carbon from eucalyptus bark for the removal of methylene blue

Abstract

In present study, high surface area (1852m²g⁻¹) activated carbon was synthesized by single step thermo chemical activation of agro-waste lignocellulose biomass (eucalyptus bark).The synthesized activated carbon has been characterized using scanning electron microscopy, energy-dispersive-X-ray spectroscopy and BET surface area analyser. The eucalyptus bark derived activated carbon (EBAC) was used to remove methylene blue (MB) from waste water. The pH, contact time and concentration of dye were optimized and it was found that at pH of 5.5-6.5 at the room temperature, maximum removal of dye was observed. The obtained time data follows the pseudo second order kinetics. The effect of concentration study was carried out with varying concentration at optimized pH and time. The maximum adsorption capacity is obtained to be 7.15 mg/g. To understand the adsorption process, the Dubinin–Radushkevich (D–R) isotherm and Freundlich isotherm were used for fitting of equilibrium data. The fitted data follows D-R isotherm which reveals the physisorption process during adsorption of dye.