A novel route for preparation of chemically activated carbon from pistachio wood for highly efficient Pb(II) sorption

Seyed-Ali Sajjadi; Alireza Meknati; Eder Claudio Lima; Guilherme L Dotto; Didilia Ileana Mendoza-Castillo; Ioannis Anastopoulos; Fadi Alakhras; Emmanuel I Unuabonah; Pardeep Singh; Ahmad Hosseini-Bandegharaei

doi:10.1016/j.jenvman.2019.01.087

A novel route for preparation of chemically activated carbon from pistachio wood for highly efficient Pb(II) sorption

J Environ Manage. 2019 Apr 15:236:34-44. doi: 10.1016/j.jenvman.2019.01.087. Epub 2019 Jan 31.

Affiliations

¹ Environment Health Engineering Department & Social Determinants of Health Research Centre, Gonabad University of Medical Sciences, Gonabad, Iran.
² Institute of Chemistry, Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS), Av. Bento Gonc¸ alves 9500, Postal Box 15003, 91501-970 Porto Alegre, RS, Brazil. Electronic address: profederlima@gmail.com.
³ Environmental Processes Laboratory, Chemical Engineering Department, Federal University of Santa Maria-UFSM, 1000, Roraima Avenue, 97105-900 Santa Maria, Brazil.
⁴ Instituto Tecnológico de Aguascalientes, Av. López Mateos 1801, Aguascalientes, 20256, Aguascalientes, Mexico.
⁵ Laboratory of Biochemical Engineering & Environmental Technology (LBEET), Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Patras, 26504 Patras, Greece. Electronic address: Anastopoulos_Ioannis@windowslive.com.
⁶ Department of Chemistry, College of Science, Imam Abdulrahman Bin Faisal University, P.O. Box 1982, Dammam 31441, Saudi Arabia.
⁷ Environmental and Chemical Processes Research Laboratory, Department of Chemical Sciences, Redeemer's University, PMB 230, Ede, Osun State, Nigeria.
⁸ School of Chemistry, Faculty of Basic Sciences, Shoolini University, Solan (Himachal Pradesh)-173212, India.
⁹ Department of Environmental Health Engineering, Faculty of Health, Sabzevar University of Medical Sciences, Sabzevar, Iran; Department of Engineering, Kashmar Branch, Islamic Azad University, PO Box 161, Kashmar, Iran. Electronic address: ahoseinib@yahoo.com.

PMID: 30711740
DOI: 10.1016/j.jenvman.2019.01.087

Abstract

Pistachio wood-derived activated carbon prepared by a two-stage process (PWAC-2), conducting two consecutive chemical activation processes with NH₄NO₃ and NaOH, respectively. The results showed that explosive characteristic of NH₄NO₃ can primarily be employed to produce a char, with a large surface area and a highly-ordered pore structure, which can be subjected to a second activation process with NaOH to prepare a more suitable activated carbon, with a highly porous structure and useful functional groups, for removal of lead ions from aqueous media. An L₂₅ Taguchi experimental design was used by varying impregnation ratio, activation time and temperature in both pre- and post-activation stages, and the results showed that, in both stages, a small activating agent/precursor and a proportional low activation time suffice for preparation of an advantageous activated carbon for Pb(II) adsorption. A comprehensive study was performed on the equilibrium, kinetic and thermodynamic aspects of Pb(II) adsorption by the new activated carbon. The results exhibited that, having had a high lead adsorption capacity (190.2 mg g^-1), a high adsorption rapidness, and thermodynamic favorability, PWAC-2 is a beneficial alternative for utilization in full-scale plants of lead removal from waters and wastewaters.

Keywords: Activated carbon; Adsorption; NH(4)NO(3); NaOH; Pb(II) ion; Two-stage activation.

MeSH terms

Adsorption
Charcoal
Hydrogen-Ion Concentration
Kinetics
Lead
Pistacia*
Water Pollutants, Chemical*
Wood

Substances

Water Pollutants, Chemical
Charcoal
Lead