Utilization of activated carbon prepared from agricultural waste for the removal of organophosphorous pesticide from aqueous media

The current study aims to utilize activated carbon produced from agriculture waste to adsorb and remove malathion and profenofos as organophosphorous insecticides from aqueous solutions under different experimental conditions. Physicochemical properties of these materials were investigated by several procedures; elemental analysis, surface area, and texture porosity. A matrix effect analysis was applied to correlate the malathion and profenofos adsorption capacity to the agitation time, initial levels of each pesticide (1-10mg/l), carbon dose (50-100mg), pH (3-11), and different temperatures (15-45 degrees C). The maximum removal percentages of malathion and profenofos at equilibrium time were 97 and 98% for activated carbon derived from date stones (AC1), respectively, however, these values were 98 and 96% for Norit carbon as a reference carbon (AC2). At equilibrium time,the increase of temperature decreased the adsorption capacity of both AC1 and AC2 with malathion and profenofos. The adsorption capacity of both AC1 and AC2 to malathion and profenofos increased as the pH was increased.