A quick removal of toxic phenolic compounds using porous carbon prepared from renewable biomass coconut spathe and exploration of new source for porous carbon materials

Highly porous carbon material was prepared using coconut spathe (CS) and potassium hydroxide (KOH) as an activating agent under nitrogen atmosphere via pyrolysis method. The pore development was significant at temperature 800 degrees C and reached maximum BET surface area (1705 m(2)/g) and maximum pore radius (2 nm). Boehm titration data used to calculate the total acidic sites (40.1 mmol/g) and basic sites (18.62 mmol/g). Adsorption performance of KOH treated activated carbon (KAC) was used for the removal of phenol (P), 2-chlorophenol (2-CP) and 4-chrlophenol (4-CP) from aqueous medium. Adsorption parameters like effect of adsorbent dosage, initial concentration of the adsorbate, contact time, pH and reusability were evaluated for the removal of phenolic compounds. The data reveals that the Langmuir isotherm model and pseudo-second-order kinetics are best fitted and the maximum uptake (q(exp)) of P, 2-CP and 4-CP were found to be 120, 225 and 275 mg g(-1) respectively within 15 min of contact time. The desorption studies were conducted to recover an adsorbed phenolic compounds using 0.05 N sodium hydroxide and it reveals that there is no significant changes even after five times use. Further, to complement the experimental results, the quantum mechanical calculations were done by using the semi-empirical PM6 method using the computational code Gaussian 09W.