phenol adsorption on modified adsorbents nh3-activated carbon, naoh-activated carbon: characterization, kinetic and isotherm modeling

In the present study, an organic wastewater industrial pollutant such as a phenol was removed by the improved modified adsorbents: nh3-activated carbon, and naoh-activated. when the activated carbon acdk was recovered from agricultural waste date kernel and prepared via pyrolysis and thermal activation at 850 ° c. the modification of the activated carbon surface acdk was ready chemically with the impregnation in the 10wt %   ammonia solution to obtain a modified adsorbent: nh3-acdk, the impregnation of acdk in 10 wt% sodium hydroxide solution for the second modified adsorbent: naoh-acdk. the modified functional samples were characterized by sem, ft-ir and drx, tga-dsc. the results established that phenol molecules were favorable for adsorption on the nitrogen group and hydroxide group of activated carbon at ph 4, solution temperature (28°c), and contact time (60-100 minutes). the adsorption kinetics of phenol on the modified adsorbents were better adapted to the pseudo-second-order adsorption model with (r² = 0.985) for nh3-acdk, (r² = 0.980) for naoh-acdk. the adsorption isotherm follows the langmuir design and is fitted well compared to freundlich models with (r2= 0,999) for naoh-acdk, langmuir, and freundlich isotherms models fit the experimental equilibrium data for nh3-acdk) with correlation coefficient (r²≥ 0,989). the removal percentage of phenol on nh3-acdk, and naoh-acdk was 97,6 % and 70,3%, respectively.