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Abstracto

Studies on adsorptive removal of cationic dyes using a novel nonconventional activated carbon

Arunachalam Agalya, Nachimuthu Palanisamy and Ponnusamy Sivakumar

The present study establish the potential of activated carbon prepared from inexpensive, locally and abundantly available biomaterial Euphorbia Tirucalli L wood to remove cationic dyes Basic Violet3 and Basic Violet10 from aqueous solutions. Batch mode kinetic and isotherm studies were carried out to evaluate the effects of contact time, initial dye concentration, pH and temperature. The amount of dye adsorbed at equilibrium was 162.5 mg/g for BV3 and 150 mg/g for BV10. The maximum removal of cationic dyes observed at pH of 8. Adsorption of cationic dyes increased with temperature indicating endothermic nature of adsorption. Adsorption kinetic data has been studied using pseudo first order, second order and intra particle diffusion model to understand the reaction mechanism. Adsorption isothermal data could be interpreted by the Langmuir and Freundlich models. The maximum adsorption capacity Q0 varies from 208.33 to 222.22 mg/g for BV3 and 204.08 to 217.39 mg/g while increasing the temperature from 30ºC to 45ºC. Thermodynamic parameters were also calculated and it was found to be spontaneous, endothermic and physical adsorption in nature. The activation energy for both cationic dyes studied were below 40 kJ/mol