Applied Water Science · 2014 · 37 citations · 25 references
Agricultural adsorbents are reported to have a remarkable performance for adsorption of dyes. In the present study, formaldehyde and sulphuric acid treated two agricultural adsorbents; potato peel and neem bark are used to adsorb methylene blue. On the whole, the acid-treated adsorbents are investigated to have high sorption efficiency compared to HCHO treated adsorbents. The percentage removal efficiency of H2SO4 treated potato peel (APP) increases considerably high from 75 to 100 % with increase in adsorbent dose, whereas the removal efficiency of H2SO4 treated neem bark (ANB) is found to be 98 % after adding the first dose only. The monolayer sorption behaviour of HCHO treated potato peel (PP) and APP is well defined by Langmuir, whereas the chemisorptions behaviour of HCHO treated neem bark (NB) and ANB is suggested by Temkin’s isotherm model. The maximum adsorption capacity measured is highest in ANB followed by NB, PP and APP with the values of 1000, 90, 47.62 and 40.0 mg/g, respectively. The pseudo-second-order kinetic model fitted well with the observed data of all the four adsorbents. The results obtained reveal that NB and ANB both are good adsorbents compared to PP and APP.
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