The structural properties and characteristics of date palm fiber-based low-cost carbon nanotubes (CNTs) and nanostructured powder activated carbon (DP-NPAC) are investigated. The DP-NPAC and CNTs are prepared using an environmentally friendly method, and characterized and analyzed using field emission-scanning electron microscopy (FESEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), and X-ray diffraction (XRD). The results have showed that both DP-NPAC and CNTs possess crystallite structure, nano-scale, high capacity, cost-effective for multi-application that make them efficient for future fabrication and manufacturing. It is supposed that DP-NPAC biomass is to be used as potential and cost-effective precursor for synthesized CNTs.
Hybrid carbon nanotubes (CNTs) are grown on biomass powder-activated carbon (bio-PAC) by loading iron nanoparticles (Fe) as catalyst templates using chemical vapor deposition (CVD) and using acetylene as carbon source, under specific conditions as reaction temperature, time, and gas ratio that are 550 °C, 47 min, and 1, respectively. Specifications of hybrid CNTs were analyzed and characterized using field emission scanning electron microscope (FESEM) with energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX), transmission electron microscopic (TEM), Fourier-transform infrared (FTIR), X-ray diffraction (XRD), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), surface area Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET), and zeta potential. The results revealed the high quality and unique morphologies of hybrid CNTs. Furthermore, removal and capacity of Al3+ were optimized by response surface methodology (RSM). However, the results revealed that the pseudo-second-order model well represented adsorption kinetic data, while the isotherm data were effectively fitted using a Freundlich model. The maximum adsorption capacity was 347.88 mg/g. It could be concluded that synthesized hybrid CNTs are a new cost-effective and promising adsorbent for removing Al3+ ion from wastewater.