activated carbon from azolla for amoxicilline adsorption: effect of synthesize conditions using design of experiments

In this study, azolla filiculoides were used as a raw material for the production of activated carbon to adsorb amoxicillin (amx)# activated carbon was prepared during a carbonization step followed by chemical activation using phosphoric acid# the effect of carbonization temperature, chemical activation temperature (ta), and phosphoric acid to an adsorbent ratio of adsorption yield was investigated by the full factorial designing of experiments# analysis of variance (anova) shows that by a probability more than 95%, carbonization temperature (tc), phosphoric acid to carbon ratio (h3po4/c) and interaction of two factors of tc and ta (tc * ta) have a statistically significant effect on the amx adsorption yield# the optimum conditions, including carbonization temperature of 500℃, activation temperature of 700℃ and phosphoric acid to carbon ratio of 4 resulted in an activated carbon sample having a bet pore surface area of 940 (m2/gr) and a total pore volume of 0#49 (cm3/gr) which had the highest adsorption yield in comparison to other samples# the results show that increasing the carbonization temperature leads to a decrease in adsorption efficiency# the specimens were characterized by sem, nitrogen physical adsorption# micropore size distribution was analyzed by t-plot# about 95% of the pore surface area of the optimized sample is due to micropore (below 2 nm) and about 37% of the pore volume is for micropores volume# the results show that the azole carbon adsorbent is suitable for the absorption of drug contaminants#