ABSTRACT

Corncob (CC), an agricultural waste that is produce in large amounts around the
world was investigated as a potential low cost adsorbent for removal of dyes. This study
was aimed at the adsorption of two basic dyes, which are Crystal Violet (CV) and
Procion Red MX-5B (PR) dyes on corncob activated carbon (CCAC) as adsorbent from
aqueous solution. Batch experiments were performed by varying the pH of solution,
adsorbent dosage, initial dyes concentration, contact time, and agitation. The Langmuir,
Freundlich, and Temkin isotherm models were employed to investigate the mechanism
of dyes onto adsorption process. The equilibrium data were perfectly represented by the
Langmuir isotherm with R2 of 0.9958 (CV) and R2 of 0.9733 (PR). The maximum
adsorption capacity of the activated carbon was found to be 2.498mg/g of CV and 2.860
mg/g of PR. Kinetic studies indicated that the adsorption process followed the pseudosecond-order kinetic with R2 of 0.9999. The morphology of CCAC was identified
porous with honeycomb shape and characterized by field emission scanning electron
microscopy (FESEM) analysis. The surface functional groups responsible for dyes
intake by CCAC indicate that the CCAC were defined as organic and carbonyl groups
and were analysed by Fourier transform infrared spectrometry (FTIR) analysis. The
results of the present study indicate that the activated carbon prepared from the corncob
is a promising candidate as a low-cost bio-adsorbent for the removal of CV and PR from
aqueous solution.