Insights into the modeling, characterization and adsorption performance of mesoporous activated carbon from corn cob residue via microwave-assisted H3PO4 activation

By Ali H. Jawad, M. Bardhan, Md. Atikul Islam, M. Islam, S. Syed-Hassan, S. N. Surip, Z. Alothman, M. R. Khan. 2020

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Abstract Microwave-assisted H3PO4 chemical activation was applied to convert corn (Zea mays) cob (CC) residue into mesoporous corn cob activated carbon (CC-AC) as a desirable adsorbent for cationic dye (methylene blue; MB) removal. The activation process was carried out by impregnating CC with phosphoric acid (H3PO4) (1:2 Wt.% mixing ratio) before being placed inside a microwave oven with activation power of 600 W for 20 min for CC-AC production. A Box-Behnken design (BBD) was applied to develop response model followed by numerical optimization in order to optimize the input adsorption variables (CC-AC dose, solution pH, temperature, and contact time) towards MB dye removal by CC-AC. The best numerical option for MB dye removal (99.7%) was recorded at following operation conditions: CC-AC dosage 0.1 g, solution pH 9.4, temperature 39.9 °C, and contact time 34.1 min. The adsorption results at these optimum conditions indicated the capability of CC-AC for uptaking 183.3 mg/g MB dye at equilibrium as determined by Langmuir isotherm. The consequence of this study suggested the feasibility of producing a high quality of mesoporous activated carbon for cationic dye removal by a relatively fast microwave process.

Subfields: Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering, Organic Chemistry, Water Science and Technology

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/6bd6f01f8a277defea8b4014b5005b51d75fe6fe