Synthesis of activated carbon from spent tea leaves for aspirin removal

Syie Luing Wong, Yowjeng Lee, Norzita Ngadi, Ibrahim Mohammed Inuwa, Nurul Balqis Mohamed

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78 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Adsorption capacity of activated carbon prepared from spent tea leaves (STL-AC) for the removal of aspirin from aqueous solution was investigated in this study. Preliminary studies have shown that treatment with phosphoric acid (H3PO4) increased removal efficiency of STL-AC. Characterizations on STL-AC revealed excellent textural properties (1200 m2·g− 1, 51% mesoporosity), as well as distinctive surface chemistry (1.08 mmol·g− 1 and 0.54 mmol·g− 1 for acidic and basic oxygenated groups, pHpzc = 2.02). Maximum removal efficiency of aspirin observed was 94.28% after 60 min when the initial concentration was 100 mg·L− 1, 0.5 g of adsorbent used, pH 3 and at a temperature of 30 °C. The adsorption data were well fitted to the Freundlich isotherm model and obeyed the pseudo-second order kinetics model. The adsorption of aspirin onto STL-AC was exothermic in nature (ΔHϴ = − 13.808 kJ·mol− 1) and had a negative entropy change, ΔSϴ (− 41.444 J·mol− 1). A negative Gibbs free energy, ΔGϴ was obtained indicating feasibility and spontaneity of the adsorption process. The adsorption capacity of AC-STL (178.57 mg·g− 1) is considerably high compared to most adsorbents synthesized from various sources, due to the well-defined textural properties coupled with surface chemistry of STL-AC which favors aspirin adsorption. The results demonstrate the potential of STL-AC as aspirin adsorbent.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)1003-1011
Number of pages9
JournalChinese Journal of Chemical Engineering
Volume26
Issue number5
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - May 2018
Externally publishedYes

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
This work was supported by Malaysia's Ministry of Higher Education 's Fundamental Research Grant Scheme (FRGS, grant number 4F872 ) as well as Research University grant (GUP, grant number 17H65 ). The main author, Wong Syie Luing, is also thankful for the support from Universiti Teknologi Malaysia in the form of Post-Doctoral Fellowship Scheme for the Project: “Catalytic Cracking of Low Density Polyethylene Waste to Liquid Fuels in Fixed Bed Reactor”.

Funding Information:
This work was supported by Malaysia's Ministry of Higher Education's Fundamental Research Grant Scheme (FRGS, grant number 4F872) as well as Research University grant (GUP, grant number 17H65). The main author, Wong Syie Luing, is also thankful for the support from Universiti Teknologi Malaysia in the form of Post-Doctoral Fellowship Scheme for the Project: “Catalytic Cracking of Low Density Polyethylene Waste to Liquid Fuels in Fixed Bed Reactor”.

Publisher Copyright:
© 2017 Elsevier B.V.

Funding

This work was supported by Malaysia's Ministry of Higher Education 's Fundamental Research Grant Scheme (FRGS, grant number 4F872 ) as well as Research University grant (GUP, grant number 17H65 ). The main author, Wong Syie Luing, is also thankful for the support from Universiti Teknologi Malaysia in the form of Post-Doctoral Fellowship Scheme for the Project: “Catalytic Cracking of Low Density Polyethylene Waste to Liquid Fuels in Fixed Bed Reactor”. This work was supported by Malaysia's Ministry of Higher Education's Fundamental Research Grant Scheme (FRGS, grant number 4F872) as well as Research University grant (GUP, grant number 17H65). The main author, Wong Syie Luing, is also thankful for the support from Universiti Teknologi Malaysia in the form of Post-Doctoral Fellowship Scheme for the Project: “Catalytic Cracking of Low Density Polyethylene Waste to Liquid Fuels in Fixed Bed Reactor”.

Keywords

  • Activated carbon
  • Adsorption
  • Aspirin
  • Isotherm
  • Kinetics
  • Spent tea leaves

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