Removal of Methylene Blue by Modified Carbon Prepared from the Sambucus Nigra L. plant

An increase in population initiating rapid industrialization was found to consequently increase the effluents and domestic wastewater into the aquatic ecosystem. In this research the potentialities of Sambucus nigra L. (SNL) plant in the remediation of water, contaminated with methylene blue (MB), a basic dye were investigated. SNL was chemically impregnated with $KHCO_3$. Operating variables studied were pH, amount of adsorbent and contact time. In general, pH did not have any significant effect on colour removal and the highest adsorption capacity was obtained in 0.035 g MB/g-activated carbon. The Langmuir, Freundlich, Temkin and Dubinin-Radushkevich adsorption models were applied to describe the equilibrium isotherms. The adsorption isotherm data were fitted to the Temkin isotherm. The mass transfer property of the sorption process was studied using Lagergren pseudo-first-order and chemisorption pseudo-second-order kinetic models. The sorption process obeyed the pseudo-second-order kinetic model. The surface area, pores volume and diameter were assessed by the Brunauer-Emmett-Teller and Barrett-Joyner-Halenda methods. The results were compared to those from activated carbon (Merck) and an actual sample. The results indicate that SNL can be employed as a natural and eco-friendly adsorbent material for the removal of dye MB from aqueous solutions.