Experimental and computational studies on activated Bambara groundnut (Vigna subterranean) hulls for the adsorptive removal of herbicides from aqueous solution

Abstract

The excessive usage of herbicides to control herbs by farmers has become an issue of interest to the environmentalist due to the threat posed by such act to the ecosystem, and therefore, there is the need to curb such practices. The efficiency of Bambara groundnut shell for the removal of pendimethalin (PE) and paraquat dichloride (PQ) herbicides from aqueous solution was established in this work. The activated carbon was prepared via chemical activation method using trioxonitrate (v) acid by determining its void volume, moisture content, bulk density and Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) methods. Batch adsorption techniques were set to optimize the adsorption parameters such as solution pH, adsorbate concentration, contact time, adsorbent dosage and temperature in order to depict the best optimal conditions for the adsorption process. The adsorption process was examined in terms of its equilibrium data, kinetics, thermodynamics involved in the adsorption process as well as computational quantum chemical parameters evaluation.