Preparation of activated carbon from Salvadora persica for the removal of Cu(II) ions from aqueous media

The Salvadora persica (Pilu) a cost effective material, is recently being used as adsorbent for the removal of highly toxic Cu(II) ions from polluted water. In this study, three comparative studies, untreated adsorbent (UTSP) and microwave and activating agents mediated activated adsorbent (ACSP) were investigated simultaneously and parallels were drawn between them for validating removal efficiency. Characterization analysis including Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) have been utilized for adsorbent. Factors affecting the adsorption of copper including pH, adsorbent dose, exposure time, and the temperature were investigated. Results showed that ACSP required less extreme conditions for effective working as compared to UTSP. Kinetic studies showed this adsorption reaction was endothermic, feasible, and spontaneous. Additionally, the results clearly showed that both adsorbents exhibited the best correlation with the Langmuir and Freundlich model of adsorption. Hence, a novel, economical and facile biomaterial has been reported in this study for Cu(II) ions removal from aqueous media.