Preparation of Activated Carbon from the Wood of Paulownia tomentosa as an Efficient Adsorbent for the Removal of Acid Red 4 and Methylene Blue Present in Wastewater

Paulownia tomentosa, a woody plant that is widely found in Pakistan and in other regions of the world, was used as a raw material to prepare activated carbon using chemical and physical activation methods. Adsorption of the dyes- acid red 4 and methylene blue onto the prepared activated carbon were analyzed by batch experiments. The impacts of different adsorption parameters such as pH, temperature, contact time, initial dye concentration and adsorbent dosage were also evaluated. Equilibrium data were fitted into various isotherm models such as: Langmuir, Temkin and Freundlich. High regression values were achieved with Langmuir isotherm model. Different kinetic adsorption models such as pseudo-first-order, pseudo-second-order and intra-particle diffusion model models were applied. The adsorption kinetics was found to be best-fitted into pseudo-second-order kinetic model. The optimum pH for acid red 4 was around 1 while for methylene blue it was 8. The optimum adsorbent dosage was 0.3 g for both dyes used. The activation energy (E-a) values were 30.57 and 3.712 kJ/mol, respectively for acid red 4 and methylene blue while the enthalpy (Delta H) and entropy (Delta S) values were correspondingly as 24.88/1.1927 kJ/mol and -2843.32/-0.329 J center dot mol/K for the mentioned dyes. The experimental result showed that the prepared activated carbon was the best in the removal of acid red 4 and methylene blue from aqueous media and therefore, could be preferably used as cheap adsorbent in wastewater treatment.

Automated summary

Paulownia tomentosa was used to prepare activated carbon for the adsorption of acid red 4 and methylene blue, with the best-fit kinetic model being pseudo-second-order. The experimental results showed that the activated carbon prepared from this plant was effective in removing the dyes from aqueous media.