Preparation, Characterization of Chitin-Based Activated Carbon for Orange II Removal

Chitin-based activated carbon (CAC) was prepared by a two-step process of carbonization and potassium carbonate chemical activation. The CAC was characterized using scanning electron microscopy (SEM), N2 adsorption/ desorption, Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy, and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). The adsorption performance of CAC for Orange II (O II) was evaluated in terms of contact time, adsorption temperature, initial concentration, adsorption kinetics, adsorption isotherms, and thermodynamics. The CAC had a surface area of 1320 m2 g-1 and a total pore volume of 1.10 cm3 g-1. The maximum monolayer adsorption capacity was 1010 mg g-1 at 318.2 K for O II, respectively. Equilibrium isotherms showed that the Langmuir model had a higher coefficient of determination than the Freundlich model. The thermodynamic results indicated that the adsorption process of O II onto CAC 800 was spontaneous and endothermic. Given the results of this work, CAC can be used as an efficient adsorbent for the removal of dyes from wastewater.