The removal of acid green 4G and anthraquinone orange from aqueous solution using adsorption on activated carbon from human hair

Human hair was used as raw material to produce activated carbon. Several physicochemical analyses such as Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction, pH zero point charge were performed to characterize the adsorbent. Moisture content in activated carbon, carbon tetrachloride number, benzene number, methyl blue adsorption test and iodine number were carried to analyze the qualities and performances of activated carbon. The results show the effectiveness of activated carbon in adsorption of the textile dyes with an elimination of 98.50% for adsorption of acid green 4G and 73.22% for adsorption of anthraquinone orange in 60 min of contact under constant stirring. The effect of both initial pH and agitation speed show that the optimal conditions were used to be medium shaking and slightly acidic to neutral for acid green 4G/activated carbon couple and medium shaking and basic pH for anthraquinone orange/activated carbon couple.