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Adsorption Studies of Volatile Organic Compound (Naphthalene) from Aqueous Effluents: Chemical Activation Process Using Weak Lewis Acid, Equilibrium Kinetics and Isotherm Modelling

Akinpelu AA 1 , Chowdhury ZZ 1 , Shibly SM 1 , Faisal ANM 1 , Badruddin IA 2 , Rahman MM 3 Show all authors , Amin MA 4 , Sagadevan S 1 , Akbarzadeh O 1 , Khan TMY 2 , Kamangar S 2 , Khalid K 5 , Saidur R 6 , Johan MR 1

Affiliations 

  • 1 Nanotechnology and Catalysis Research Center, University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur 50603, Malaysia
  • 2 Department of Mechanical Engineering, College of Engineering, King Khalid University, P.O. Box 394, Abha 61421, Saudi Arabia
  • 3 Islamic Business School, University Utara Malaysia, Kedah 06010, Malaysia
  • 4 Global Centre for Environmental Remediation (GCER), University of Newcastle, Callaghan, NSW 2308, Australia
  • 5 Malaysian Agricultural Research & Development Institute (MARDI), Serdang 43000, Malaysia
  • 6 Research Centre for Nano-Materials and Energy Technology (RCNMET), School of Science and Technology, Sunway University, No. 5, Jalan Universiti, Bandar Sunway, Petaling Jaya 47500, Malaysia
Int J Mol Sci, 2021 Feb 19;22(4).
PMID: 33669883 DOI: 10.3390/ijms22042090

Abstract

This study deals with the preparation of activated carbon (CDSP) from date seed powder (DSP) by chemical activation to eliminate polyaromatic hydrocarbon-PAHs (naphthalene-C10H8) from synthetic wastewater. The chemical activation process was carried out using a weak Lewis acid of zinc acetate dihydrate salt (Zn(CH3CO2)2·2H2O). The equilibrium isotherm and kinetics analysis was carried out using DSP and CDSP samples, and their performances were compared for the removal of a volatile organic compound-naphthalene (C10H8)-from synthetic aqueous effluents or wastewater. The equilibrium isotherm data was analyzed using the linear regression model of the Langmuir, Freundlich and Temkin equations. The R2 values for the Langmuir isotherm were 0.93 and 0.99 for naphthalene (C10H8) adsorption using DSP and CDSP, respectively. CDSP showed a higher equilibrium sorption capacity (qe) of 379.64 µg/g. DSP had an equilibrium sorption capacity of 369.06 µg/g for C10H8. The rate of reaction was estimated for C10H8 adsorption using a pseudo-first order, pseudo-second order and Elovich kinetic equation. The reaction mechanism for both the sorbents (CDSP and DSP) was studied using the intraparticle diffusion model. The equilibrium data was well-fitted with the pseudo-second order kinetics model showing the chemisorption nature of the equilibrium system. CDSP showed a higher sorption performance than DSP due to its higher BET surface area and carbon content. Physiochemical characterizations of the DSP and CDSP samples were carried out using the BET surface area analysis, Fourier-scanning microscopic analysis (FSEM), energy-dispersive X-ray (EDX) analysis and Fourier-transform spectroscopic analysis (FTIR). A thermogravimetric and ultimate analysis was also carried out to determine the carbon content in both the sorbents (DSP and CDSP) here. This study confirms the potential of DSP and CDSP to remove C10H8 from lab-scale synthetic wastewater.

* Title and MeSH Headings from MEDLINE®/PubMed®, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine.

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