Efficient removal of methylene blue using the mesoporous activated carbon obtained from mangosteen peel wastes: Kinetic, equilibrium, and thermodynamic studies

In order to improve the efficiency of the removal of methylene blue from wastewater, we synthesized activated carbon by thermally activating phosphoric acid-treated mangosteen peels. This activated carbon possessed a great specific surface area (1832 m 2 /g) and exhibited excellent adsorption capacity (871.49 mg/g) for methylene blue. In this study, we varied the impregnation ratios, activation temperatures, and activation time to determine the best conditions for preparing the mangosteen peel activated carbon (MPAC). The optimal conditions included a 1:3 impregnation ratio with activation for 60 min at 450 °C. We characterized the MPAC using a scanning electron microscope, powder X-ray diffraction, thermogravimetric analysis , differential scanning calorimetry , and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy together with the Brunauer–Emmett–Teller approach. The adsorption experiment results conformed to the pseudo-second-order kinetic model and the Langmuir isotherm model. This proved that physical adsorption dominates in this adsorption process . The synthesized MPAC-5 showed great adsorption performance for a variety of dye wastewater. After three times of recycling, the removal rate of methylene blue is still above 40%. Compared with other biowastes, mangosteen peel has the potential to be synthesized into activated carbon with a high adsorption capacity for dyes.