An Eco-Friendly Procedure for Preparation of Activated Carbon as a Capture Material of Heavy Metals in Wastewater

Abstract

This study aims to prepare an activated carbon from environmentally and inexpensive materials such as banana peels. The synthetic activated carbon has been employed in the capture of heavy elements e.g., copper (Cu), zinc (Zn) and cadmium (Cd) ions from wastewater. The spectroscopic (Fourier-transform infrared; FTIR) and morphological surface (scanning electron microscopy; SEM) investigations of the activated carbon were assigned. Adsorption of mentioned heavy metals upon the activated carbon studies were performed with different parameters such as effect of contact time, initial concentration of the heavy metal and pH (2–10) of the solution. A comparison of the adsorption capacity of the synthetic activated carbon (dried banana peels) with different adsorbents previously used (dried fruits peels) for Cu(II), Zn(II) and Cd(II) ions removal from wastewater streams shows its observable efficiency over many other treated and untreated natural and synthetic adsorbents. The Cu(II) ions showed the highest removal efficiency followed by Cd(II) then Zn(II) ions.