Feasibility Study of Malachite Green Dye Removal from Aqueous Solution Using Groundnut Cake Activated Carbon

Abstract

The preparation of activated carbon by the activation of groundnut cake from orthophosphoric acid and its ability to remove the Malachite Green (MG) dye from the aqueous solution in batch process were presented in this study. The effect of adsorbent dose, initial pH of the dye solution, temperature and initial dye concentration on the removal of MG were explored. The activated carbon was characterised by the Field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM) and Fourier transform infra-red (FTIR) spectroscopy. Result shows that the adsorption was more effective in the acidic medium and increase with contact time and initial dye concentration but decreases with temperature. The adsorption capacity of the prepared groundnut cake activated carbon was 6.45 mg/g. The kinetic study of adsorption was better described by Pseudo-2nd order kinetic model and Freundlich isotherm describes the MG adsorption equilibrium data better than Langmuir isotherm. Thermodynamic parameters such as change in Gibbs free energy, enthalpy and entropy also determined.