Activated Carbon: Wastewater Treatment

Abstract

Activated carbon has very unique properties such as larger surface area, high porosity structure and could be considered as cheaper adsorbent to remove pollutants in wastewater. Generally, activated carbon could be produced by using various precursors which contained carbonaceous materials including agricultural wastes, industrial wastes and part of the plants. The starting materials, carbonized sample and activated carbon were characterized via various techniques such as X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), thermos gravimetric analysis (TGA), and energy dispersive X-ray analysis (EDX). In this work, the activated carbon was reported in terms of adsorption capacity of heavy metal ion and dye compounds, different types of isotherms, thermodynamic aspects and the kinetic models. SEM analysis confirmed the smooth surface in raw materials, while indicated larger cavities and rougher surface in the activated carbon.