Activated carbons prepared from Thymelaea hirsuta wood: Sustainable adsorbents for polyvinyl alcohol

In this study, activated carbon as novel adsorbent was prepared from low cost and locally available source such as Thymelaea hirsuta wood. Characterization of the adsorbent was carried out and BET surface area of the adsorbent was found to be 1496 m2/g. Subsequently, the Thymelaea hirsuta wood activated carbon (TWAC) was applied for the removal of polyvinyl alcohol from aqueous solutions. It was found that adsorption efficiency significantly depend to the level of initial solution pH and polymer concentration, metal addition, temperature, and adsorption time. Among the various conventional isotherm models, Langmuir is more suitable for analyzing the explanation data. The process of removal of polyvinyl alcohol was better governed by second order kinetics with a rate constant of 0.0079 g mg−1 min at initial concentration 20 mg/L. The calculated thermodynamic parameters indicate the entropy-driven and endothermic nature of polymer adsorption process. For desorption study, more than 86.2% of polyvinyl alcohol could be desorbed from the adsorbent. © 2015 American Institute of Chemical Engineers Environ Prog, 2015