UTILIZATION OF ACTIVATED CARBON FROM CANDLENUT SHELLS (Aleurites Moluccana) AS METHYLENE BLUE ADSORBENT

Abstract

Candlenut shell is a potential material to be used as activated carbon. This study aims to explore the kinetics and isotherm of adsorption of activated carbon from the shell of candlenut against the methylene blue (MBe) dye in the solution. Activation of carbon from the shell of candlenut was carried out physically for 1 h at 700 °C and proceeded with chemical activation using 10% zinc chloride (ZnCl2) solution to produce each physical (ACp-CS) and chemically (ACc-CS) activated carbon. The presence of functional groups in ACp-CS and ACc-CS was identified by an infrared (IR) spectrometer, while the surface topography of the materials was analyzed by a Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM). Adsorption of MBe solution by ACp-CS and ACc-CS with a dosage amount of 0.1 g was optimum at an interaction time of 100 min and at pH of 10, resulting in the amount of adsorbed dye 44.269 and 45.932 mg g-1 , successively. The sorption of MBe dye by ACp-CS and ACc-CS tends to attend kinetics model of the pseudo-secondorder (PSO) underrate constant (k2) grades of 15.49 x 10-3 and 6.30 x 10-3 (g mg-1 min-1) and the isotherm model of the Freundlich (AIMF) by factor values of adsorption capacity (KF) were 4.60 and 5.99 x 10-5 (mg g-1) (L mg-1) 1/n , successively. Activated carbon from the shell of the candlenut has the potential to be applied as an adsorbent to absorb dyes in liquid waste before being released to the surrounding