Activated carbon with ultrahigh surface area derived from sawdust biowaste for the removal of rhodamine B in water

Abstract Biomass has been extensively considered a sustainable resource for preparing activated carbon for energy and environmental applications. However, the fabrication of activated carbon from biomass with a high surface area that can be effectively utilized for environmental treatment remains the main drawback. In this study, activated carbon with an ultra-high surface area was fabricated from sawdust by simple, one-step chemical activation. The effects of the activating temperature and time on the surface area of the activated carbon were investigated. The sawdust activated carbon (sAC) that was obtained was characterized using scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), FTIR spectroscopy, and Brunauer, Emmett and Teller (BET) surface area measurements. The prepared sAC had a porous structure, which comprised aggregated nanoparticles with diameters ranging from 10 to 20 nm. The sAC exhibited a high and rapid removal efficiency toward Rhodamine B (RhB), with a removal percentage of nearly 100% after 10 min at an RhB concentration of 10 ppm. The effect of the pH solution on RhB removal performance by sawdust-activated carbon toward RhB was also investigated and discussed and showed that the sAC absorbed more than 90% of the RhB in all the pH at room temperature solutions.