Pineapple leaves based activated carbon for efficient removal of reactive black 5 in aqueous

Abstract Adsorption by activated carbon (AC) has been recognized and widely used in the dye wastewater treatment. Due to the effectiveness of AC, researchers have started to focus on developing AC from renewable sources, which is abundant and cheap. This research study the preparation of AC from pineapple leaves (PL) (termed as PLAC), a superior adsorbent for the removal of reactive black 5 (RB5). The PLAC has been synthesized via chemical activation where a chemical agent of sodium hydroxide (NaOH) was used for activation. A full factorial design was employed to investigate the significance of several parameters, such as impregnation ratio and reaction time between NaOH and PL, as well as carbonization effects of temperature and time on the removal of RB5. The results revealed that the adsorption of RB5 onto PLAC was highly dependent on the PLAC synthesis condition. The parameter of impregnation ratio has a significant influence on PLAC adsorption performance (with 98% contribution), as proven in ANOVA analysis. The desirability analysis indicated impregnated precursor with NaOH at 2.18 ratio for 2 h and carbonized at 464 °C for 60 min is the ideal preparation condition.