Removal of Rhodamine B from water by cedar cone: Effect of calcinations and chemical activation
Introduction
Contamination of water resources is becoming an acute problem nowadays, as a result of organic and inorganic pollutants originating from agricultural, urban and industrial activities. Dyes are broadly used in many industries such as food, paper, plastics, cosmetics and textile; in fact, textile industry ranks first in dyes usage. They represent a contaminant of concern for water resources, because of their poor biodegradability [1] and their high diffusion in aquatic environment. Their tinturial value is very high where less than 1 ppm of a dye produces obvious coloration [2]. Under these conditions, they can harm both wildlife and flora.
Among chemical and physical treatment methods, adsorption became one of the most effective methods for the removal of dyes from aqueous solutions, because of its efficiency and simplicity. Even though, activated carbon is very efficient as a sorbent, it is, however, still very expensive. Consequently, the attention was focused to search for cheaper materials. The use of non-conventional sorbent became interesting, especially when chemical or physical activation is possible. Chemical activation is a single step method of preparation of sorbents in the presence of chemical agents while physical activation involves carbonization of carbonaceous materials followed by activation of the resulting char in the presence of activating agents such as CO2 or steam as mentioned in Ref. [3].
In this study, cedar cone, a natural material, abundant in large quantities in the forest of Chelia region, Wilaya of Khenchela, Algeria; was used as a sorbent because of its promising efficiency in the removal of a cationic dye, Rhodamine B (RhB), in a batch system as shown in a previous study [4], [5]. In order to asses the improvement of the sorption capacity of cedar cone. Calcinations and chemical activation treatment with different preparation conditions were used. The most efficient treatment is defined as the one which results in the maximal dye removal at a minimal contact time (equilibrium time). The tests of chemical activation were optimized by using different acids and bases. Since the preparation of the chemical activated sorbent can be influenced by different factors, among which reagent concentration and impregnation ratio (solid–liquid ratio). It was, therefore, necessary to evaluate the effect of these two factors in order to determine the optimal sorbent chemically activated conditions. Moreover, the study of calcinations treatment was focused on the determination of optimal temperature and calcinations duration giving the maximum dye removal percentage.
Section snippets
Rhodamine B
Rhodamine B (RhB) supplied by Sigma Aldrich and distilled water was used to prepare all the solutions and reagents. Some properties of the RhB dye, together with its chemical structure, are listed in Table 1.
Raw material
Cedar cone (CC) (Cedrus atlantica Manetti) used in the present study was collected from the forest of Chelia, Khenchela, Algeria. The collected cones were washed with distilled water several times to remove dirt and water soluble materials. Then it was oven dried at 50 °C for 3 days. The
Effect of contact time
From Fig. 2 we observe that the amount of sorbed RhB increases with increasing contact time until reaching a constant value (plateau) at that moment there is no more dye sorption from the solution and equilibrium state is attained. The time required to reach equilibrium state is called equilibrium time and the amount of dye sorbed, then, reflects the maximum sorption capacity of the sorbent. The equilibrium time was found to be around 330 min. A rapid sorption was observed for the first
Conclusion
The present investigation revealed that calcinations and chemical activation resulted in an increase in the sorption capacity of Cedar cone for the removal of basic dye Rhodamine B (RhB) from aqueous solutions. Among the chemicals reagent used, the acid reagent was more efficient compared to the bases. Moreover, it was revealed that The HNO3 used at 2 mol/L with impregnation ratio of 20 gives the maximum percent removal of dye compared with the two other acids studied. While treatment by
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