Crofton weed derived activated carbon by microwave-induced KOH activation and application to wastewater treatment

Crofton weed, a kind of global exotic weeds, was utilized as materials for the preparation of activated carbon via microwave-induced KOH activation. The key parameters that characterize the activated carbon such as the BET surface area and total pore volume were estimated to be 3918 m(2)/g and 2.383 mL/g, respectively. The physico-chemical properties of activated carbon were characterized by FTIR, XRD, SEM and TEM. In addition, the activated carbon was exposed to methylene blue, which was used to model the migration of organic pollutants in the wastewater adsorption and to assess liquid phase adsorption properties. The equilibrium adsorption data showed that the adsorption behavior followed the Langmuir isotherm with the highest adsorption capacity of 387.60 mg/g. Pseudo-second order kinetic model was found to adequately describe the adsorption process. Thermodynamic calculations showed that the adsorption was a spontaneous and endothermic process, as well as a physisorption process.