Removal of lead (II), nickel (II), methylene blue and rhodamine B by natural and activated alder sawdust

Activated carbon, which have a high adsorption ability from gaseous and solution phases is a unique adsorbent with high surface area and porous structure. Today activated carbon is the most preferable adsorbent for elimination of various pollutants and can be produced from many materials with high carbon content. Since commercial activated carbons have high costs, nowadays the studies aimed at producing of low cost activated carbons from agricultural waste materials is gradually increasing. Among these waste materials are natural alder sawdusts. In this study, activated carbon was produced from natural alder sawdust which bountifully grows in East Black Sea Area by chemical activation using H2SO4. The removal abilities of activated carbon and natural alder sawdust for the organic and inorganic pollutants such as Methylene Blue, Rhodamine B, Lead(II) and Nickel(II) by adsorption from aqueous solutions were tested after activated carbon characterization. In characterization study, some analytical procedures including determination of surface area, moisture, FT-IR analyses, and determinations of pH, pHpzc and surface acidic functional groups were performed. Adsorption tests were carried out with batch technique. Some optimization parameters have been investigated in terms of equilibrium, kinetics and thermodinamics based on adsorption tests from aqueous solutions. Adsorption kinetic was analysed by using pseudo first order kinetic model, pseudo second order kinetic model and intraparticle diffusion model. Langmuir and Freundlich ishoterm models were used in order to explain adsorption mechanism. Thermodynamic parameters such as ?H, ?S and ?G were calculated in order to determine how adsorption had changed with temperature. Consequently, it has been identified that activated carbon is more effective than natural alder sawdust for removal of Methylene Blue, Rhodamine B, Lead(II) and Nickel(II) from aqueous solutions.