Production of activated carbon from sunflower seed shell and head and lead (II) removal from aqueous solution

In this study, activated carbon was produced by using sunflower seed husk and sunflower head wastes, and an H3PO4 chemical agent. The effects of different impregnation rates and carbonization temperatures on the surface properties were investigated in the experiments. In the characterization processes, the morphological properties of the surface such as the surface areas, pore volumes, and pore size distributions of the obtained activated carbons were determined. In addition, the properties of activated carbons were investigated by elemental analysis, TGA analysis, electron microscopy SEM, and FTIR analysis. The removal of heavy metal (Pb+2) ions from the aqueous solution by adsorption method using the produced activated carbons was investigated. For this purpose, the effects of variables such as time, initial concentration, initial pH of the solution, processing temperature, and amount of adsorbent on adsorption were investigated.