Kinetic and isotherm studies of Acid Orange 7 dye absorption using sulphonated mandarin biochar treated with TETA

Abstract

Abstract This study contributes to the current state of knowledge by highlighting the physical–chemical interactions between biochar and dyes. The removal of Acid Orange 7 (AO7) dye by a modified biochar obtained from the wastes of mandarin peels (MPs) has been investigated in this work. A dehydration procedure with 80% H2SO4 under reflux was applied to produce an innovative biochar from MPs and then boiled with H2O2 and followed by boiling with triethylenetetramine to make mandarin biochar-C-TETA (MBCT). FTIR, SEM, EDX, BJH, BET, TGA, and DTA analyses were applied to investigate the MBCT. FTIR analysis showed an additional peak that confirmed the addition of the NH2 group to the MBCT structure. An amorphous carbon structure was also confirmed by XRD analysis. The AO7 dye solution pH was proved to give the best absorption at pH 2.0. Significant removal of AO7 dye 99.07% using an initial concentration of 100 mg/L of AO7 dye and a 0.75 g/L MBCT. The Langmuir (LNR) and Freundlich (FRH) isotherm models investigated the experimental results. The LNR was best suited to handle the working MBCT data. The maximum adsorption capacity (Qm) calculated for the MBCT was 312.5 mg/g using 0.25 g/L of the MBCT. Kinetic studies were conducted using the intraparticle diffusion (IND), film diffusion (FD), pseudo-first-order (PFOR), and pseudo-second-order (PSOR) models. The absorption rate was calculated using the ultimate value of the linear regression coefficient (R2 > 0.99), and the PSOR rate model was found to ideally describe the absorption process. The point of zero charge (pHPZC) was found to be 10.17. The electrostatic attractive-forces between the sorbent surface positively charged sites and negatively charged anionic dye molecules were the primary mechanism of the MBCT sorption of the AO7 dye’s anion absorption. The results indicate that the manufactured MBCT adsorbent may be useful for removing the AO7 dye from wastewater. MBCT can be used repeatedly for up to six cycles without dropping its absorption efficiency.