Preparation of Activated Carbon from Cassava Peel by Microwave-Induced H3PO4 Activation for Naphthol Blue-Black Removal

The use of dyes in textile and batik industries can pose a serious environmental problem when the effluent is discharged into the stream without previous treatment. Adsorption is one of the efficient and reliable methods for dyes removal. In this sense, biomass-based activated carbon has been considered as a low-cost adsorbent. The purpose of this work was to prepare a microwave-induced H3PO4 activated carbon from cassava peel for naphthol blue-black removal. The surface morphology of the activated carbon was analyzed using a scanning electron microscope while the presence of the functional group in the activated carbon surface was recorded using Fourier transform infrared spectrophotometer (FTIR). In the range of H3PO4 concentration studied (40, 50, and 60%), the best-activated carbon was obtained by microwave-induced H3PO4 activation using H3PO4 concentration of 60%. In this sense, 99.7% of naphthol blue-black was adsorbed. The highest naphthol blue-black uptake was found at pH 3.0 and the equilibrium was attained after 180 min. The equilibrium data of naphthol blue-black adsorption onto cassava peel activated carbon was best fitted with the Freundlich isotherm with K-F of 3.871 and n of 0.659.