Removal of chromium (VI) from aqueous solution with activated carbon which is produced by apricot stone

Chromium is used for several industrial applications extensively. Chromium in environment which exists in two stable oxidation states as Cr(III) or Cr(VI). Analysing Cr (VI) is more important than Cr (III) due to its toxicity and carcinogenic nature. Although the use of activated carbons for removing chromium from wastewater has been received a great attention, the application in this field is not common because of limited adsorption capacity and high cost of commercial activated carbons. In this study, activated carbons with high chromium sorption capacity were obtained by using apricot stone as a precursor.Experimental studies were investigated in two main parts as activated carbon production by using apricot stone and Cr (VI) sorption. Activated carbon samples are produced in two different ways. One of them is using directly and the other one is activating by phosphoric acid before carbonization. Activated carbon samples were characterized N2 adsorption measurements, FT-IR measurements, Boehm?s titration, SEM analysis, pH titration and zeta potential measurements.The effect of the chromium (VI) adsorption capasity with obtained adsorbents were investigated in an agitated batch reactor and the Langmuir and Freundlich adsorption isotherms were developed.