Investigation of the production of activated carbon and the removal of chemical oxygen requirements in domestic wastewater by rhododendron

Activated carbon is a general definition given to adsorbent materials with large crystalline and amorphous structure, expanded surface area, and high carbon content. The surface area of 1 gram of activated carbon, which has a porous structure, can be 300 – 2000 m2. The main feature that makes activated carbon such an important adsorbent is the size of its surface area. Activated carbon can be produced from many different materials. When choosing the raw material of the activated carbon to be used in production, it is necessary to meet the criteria such as high carbon content, low inorganic component, easy to obtain, low cost, and no deterioration during storage. Activated carbon can be produced from materials such as coal, wood, sawdust, corn cobs, nutshells, olive seeds, fruit peels. Activated carbon is produced in two ways: physical and chemical activation. Physical activation is carried out in two stages: pyrolysis or carbonization of the raw material and activation of the carbonized structure. The chemical activation process is based on the decomposition of the raw material and the chemical activation agent at a certain temperature. In this study, activated carbon was obtained from the leaves of the rhododendron plant by chemical activation method. The characterization of the rhododendron plant was obtained by using activated carbons, BET surface area measurements, FTIR-ATR analyzes and SEM-EDX images produced by the activation of ZnCl2 and LiOH at different temperatures. BET surface area is one of the most important parameters measuring the adsorption capacity of the adsorbent in adsorption studies. Therefore, in this study, the effects of activation agent and temperature on the surface area were investigated in order to determine the surface areas of activated carbons obtained from the rhododendron plant. COD removal efficiency was investigated from the sample with the highest surface area of the obtained activated carbons and the domestic wastewater sample. As a result of the adsorption carried out at different temperatures and in different pH environments, the surface areas of activated carbons were found to be 1227 m2 /g with 3M ZnCl2 and 205 m2 /g with 5 M LiOH, and it was concluded that the COD removal of activated carbons increased with increasing temperature and decreased with increasing pH.