Adsorption of rhodamine B by acid activated carbon-Kinetic, thermodynamic and equilibrium studies

Abstract

A carbonaceous adsorbent prepared from an indigenous waste by acid treatment was tested for its efficiency in removing Rhodamine B (RDB). The parameters studied include agitation time, initial dye concentration, carbon dose, pH and temperature. The adsorption followed first order kinetics and the rate is mainly controlled by intra-particle diffusion. Freundlich and Langmuir isotherm models were applied to the equilibrium data. The adsorption capacity (Qm) obtained from the Langmuir isotherm plots were 40.161, 35.700, 38.462 and 37.979 mg/g respectively at an initial pH of 7.0 at 30, 40, 50 and 60 0C. The temperature variation study showed that the RDB adsorption is endothermic and spontaneous with increased randomness at the solid solution interface. Significant effect on adsorption was observed on varying the pH of the RDB solutions. Almost 85% removal of RDB was observed at 60 0C. The Langmuir and Freundlich isotherms obtained, positive H 0 value, pH dependent results and desorption of dye in mineral acid suggest that the adsorption of RDB by Banana bark carbon involves physisorption mechanism.