Comparative adsorption of cationic and anionic dye by using non-activated Black Plum seed biochar for aquatic phase: Isotherm, kinetic and thermodynamic studies

Industrial dye effluents play a major role in water pollution. Textile and leather industries are one of the important sectors that pollute the water by discharging many harmful cationic and anionic dyes during the dyeing process. This study aims to compare the dye removal efficiency of Black Plum seed biochar for the cationic and anionic dyes. The non-activated biochar was prepared through pyrolysis of Black Plum seed powder at 5700 C. The sample's surface chemistry was understood using various characterization techniques like Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscopy (FESEM), Energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS), BrunauerEmmett-Teller (BET), X-ray diffraction (XRD), Raman-Spectroscopy and Zeta-potential. The experiments were successfully performed by conducting a batch adsorption study at different parameters such as pH, concentration, contact time and temperature. The coefficients of different isotherms and kinetics models were evaluated for non-linear study and the thermodynamic model was also applied. The maximum adsorption capacity was obtained as 42.39 mg/g for Crystal Violet (CV) dye and 6.22 mg/g for Eosin Blue (EB) dye by using the Langmuir isotherm model. Hence, the Black Plum seed biochar (BPSB) has superior adsorption capacity for the cationic dye CV ( removal - 98%) as compared to the anionic dye EB ( removal - 65%) at optimum parameters. Therefore, it is concluded that the BPSB is a natural toxin-free biosorbent and it can be used for the remediation of dyes from industrial wastewater.