Usability of activated carbon with well-developed mesoporous structure for the decontamination of malachite green from aquatic environments: kinetic, equilibrium and regeneration studies

This study examines the potential use of activated carbon (TAC) produced under optimized conditions from tomato processing waste (TW) as an adsorbent for the removal of malachite Green (MG) dye from aqueous solution. Batch experiments tested the effects of TAC dosage, initial concentration, contact time, ionic strength and temperature on adsorption property of TAC at the natural pH of TAC-MG in the aqueous medium. The adsorption kinetics could be expressed well by the pseudo-second order model. Intra-particle diffusion model process shows that it is governed by several mechanisms. Equilibrium data fitted well to the Langmuir isotherm. The maximum adsorption capacity was found as 526.32 mg/g at pH 4.0 and 328 K. Thermodynamic studies indicated that the process was endothermic and spontaneous.