Amoxicillin removal from aqueous solution using activated carbon prepared by chemical activation of olive stone

A chemical-activated carbon (CAC) was prepared by phosphoric acid activation of olive stone. The CAC was characterized using various analytical techniques and evaluated for the removal of amoxicillin from aqueous solutions under different operating conditions (initial concentration, 12.5–100 mg L−1, temperature, 20–25 °C, contact time, 0–7000 min). The CAC characterization indicates that it is a microporous carbon with a specific surface area of 1174 m2/g and a pore volume of 0.46 cm3/g and contains essentially acidic functional groups. The adsorption tests indicated that 93 % of amoxicillin was removed at 20 °C for 25 mg L−1 initial concentration. Moreover, it was found that adsorption capacity increased with contact time and temperature. Kinetic study shows that the highest correlation was obtained for the pseudo-second-order kinetic model, which confirms that the process of adsorption of amoxicillin is mainly chemisorption. Using the intraparticle diffusion model, the mechanism of the adsorption process was determined. The equilibrium data analysis showed that the Sips and Langmuir models fitted well the experimental data with maximal adsorption capacities of 67.7 and 57 mg/g, respectively, at 25 °C. The chemical-activated carbon of olive stones could be considered as an efficient adsorbent for amoxicillin removal from aqueous solutions.