Activated carbon from bacterial cellulose as an effective adsorbent for removing dye from aqueous solution

ABSTRACT

Novel activated carbon (AC) derived from bacterial cellulose (BC-AC) was produced by phosphoric acid activation at a carbonization temperature of 500 °C. BC-AC possesses mesoporous structures of 2.3 nm in diameter, porosity of 1.0 cm³/g and surface area of 1734 m²/g with high thermal stability between 100 and 500 °C. BC-AC could be used as an effective adsorbent for removing methylene blue (MB) from aqueous solutions with the maximum adsorption capacity of 505.8 mg/g. BC-AC presented physisorption and the adsorption of MB was most likely to be a monolayer adsorption. The Redlich–Peterson model displayed the best fit with the experimental data.

KEYWORDS:

• Activated carbon
• bacterial cellulose
• adsorption
• methylene blue

Additional information

Funding

The authors thank the Grant for International Research Integration: Chula Research Scholar, Ratchadaphiseksomphot Endowment Fund, Chulalongkorn University and the National Research Council of Thailand (NRCT) for their financial support of this project. The authors also acknowledge the 100th Anniversary Chulalongkorn University Fund for Doctoral Scholarship and the 90th Anniversary Chulalongkorn University Fund (Ratchadaphiseksomphot Endowment Fund).