Activated banana peel carbon: a potential adsorbent for Rhodamine B decontamination from aqueous system

Abstract

Among various environmental pollutants, dyes have been reported to contaminate a large quantity of surface water. Rhodamine B, a widely applicable basic dye, is known for its hazardous impact on environment. The present study proposes the application of readily available waste banana peels for the remediation of water contaminated with Rhodamine B. The potential of prepared material to decontaminate Rhodamine B was examined as the function of various parameters. Variation in adsorption time, dose of adsorbent, pH value, and initial concentration has been observed under the influence of diverse condition. Quantitative adsorption was observed at a contact time of 60 min with an adsorbent dose of 12 mg. An increase in the initial dye concentration resulted in the enhancement of adsorption capacity of adsorbent. The value of enthalpy change was observed to be − 8.95 kJ mol−1. The negative value indicates the exothermic removal of Rhodamine B from water. Various models were applied to explain thermodynamics and kinetics of the process. Adsorption kinetics was better explained with pseudo-second-order model, whereas adsorption mechanism by intra-particle diffusion model reveals that pore diffusion was not only the rate-controlling step.