Adsorption of bentazon on CAT and CARBOPAL activated carbon: Experimental and computational study

Abstract Removal of the bentazon by adsorption on two different types of activated carbon was investigated under various experimental conditions.Kinetics of adsorption is followed and the adsorption isotherms of the pesticide are determined. The effects of the changes in pH, ionic strength and temperature are analyzed. Computational simulation was employed to analyze the geometry and the energy of pesticide absorption on activated carbon. Concentration of bentazon decreases while increase all the variables, from the same initial concentration. Experimental data for equilibrium was analyzed by three models: Langmuir, Freundlich and Guggenheim–Anderson–de Boer isotherms. Pseudo-first and pseudo-second-order kinetics are tested with the experimental data, and pseudo-second-order kinetics was the best for the adsorption of bentazon by CAT and CARBOPAL with coefficients of correlation R 2  = 0.9996 and R 2  = 0.9993, respectively. The results indicated that both CAT and CARBOPAL are very effective for the adsorption of bentazon from aqueous solutions, but CAT carbon has the greater capacity.