Improvement on the adsorption of methylene blue dye onto groundnut shell activated carbon by ultrasonication / Aina Nadhirah Azman

Adsorption with activated carbon is a typical technique for eliminating MB dye from water. However, commercial activated carbon is costly and frequently insufficient. This study looked at the synthesis of activated carbon from groundnut shell-based activated carbon and its physicochemical parameters, such as pHpzc, bulk density, moisture content, iodine number, and ash content. The adsorption capacity of groundnut shell-based activated carbon was evaluated, with ultrasonication utilized to improve adsorption's performance.
Employing a UV-Visible spectrophotometer, batch adsorption tests were carried out to investigate the influences of initial methylene blue dye concentration (50-200 mg/L), adsorbent dosage (0.1-1.0 g), and contact time (20-60 minutes). Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) analysis was conducted to evaluate surface chemistry of groundnut shell-based activated carbon before and after dye adsorption. The results showed that the maximum methylene blue dye adsorption occurred at 200 mg/L, 1.0 g GNS-AC, and 60 minutes of contact time. The physicochemical parameters of GNS-AC were as follows: 55.56% product yield, 8.56% moisture content, 9.06% ash content, 0.37 g/mL bulk density, and 518.83 mg/g iodine concentration.
Furthermore, ultrasonication enhanced the adsorption capacity of activated carbon, indicating that it had the potential to improve dye removal efficiency.These findings demonstrated that groundnut shell was a suitable biomass precursor for activated carbon synthesis, and ultrasonication capable to improve its adsorption ability.