Removal of Basic Dye Rhodamine-B by Activated Carbon-MnO2-Nanocomposite and Activated Carbon-A Comparative Study

M. Santhi, P. E. Kumar

Abstract: The removal of Rhodamine-B by adsorption on Activated carbon-MnO2-Nanocomposite as well as on Activated carbon under optimized conditions has been studied. The effect of several parameters such as pH, contact time, initial concentration of the adsorbate, adsorbent dosage and temperature has been evaluated. The application of Pseudo first order, Pseudo second order, intra-particle diffusion model and Elovich kinetic models have been calculated. The adsorption on both the Activated carbon and nanocomposite followed Pseudo second order kinetics. Langmuir, Freundlich and Tempkin isotherms were also studied. The equilibrium data fitted well with Langmuir model. Thermodynamic parameters such as free energy change (-G) enthalpy change (-H), and entropy change (-S) indicate the adsorption process to be endothermic and spontaneous. Adsorbent used in this study are characterized by FT-IR, XRD and SEM analysis. The study revealed that nanocomposite is more effective than activated carbon in removing methylene blue by adsorption.

Keywords: Rhodamine-B, AC, AC-MnO2-NC, Adsorption isotherm, Kinetics