The investigation of adsorption properties and kinetics of activated carbons produced from Euphorbia rigida in aqueous solutions

In this thesis, producing high surface area activated carbons from Euphorbia rigida, characterization of these activated carbons and removal of cadmium from aqueous solutions were investigated. Experiments performed with fixed bed reactor using raw material impregnated with four types of chemicals (ZnCl2, K2CO3, NaOH ve H3PO4) and different impregnation ratios showed that it is possible to obtain activated carbons with a microporous structure having surface areas higher than 2000 m2/g. Activated carbons were used for adsorption of cadmium from aqueous solutions. Factors that effecting the adsorption were studied and the results showed that the adsorption isotherms obey both Langmuir and Freundlich adsorption isotherms, the adsorption kinetics obey pseudo-second order kinetic model and thermodynamics studies showed that adsorption process is spontaneous.As a result, under proper conditions it is determined that activated carbons obtained from Euphorbia rigida can be used for the removal of heavy metals from aqueous solutions.