Adsorptive removal of Methylene blue using fruit waste activated carbon and its binary metal oxide nanocomposite

The production of fruits and vegetables has increased significantly over the past few decades which has resulted in a rise of their waste products. The present work focuses on the promising development of fruit waste-derived activated carbon, FWAC, and its binary metal oxide hybrid nanocomposite, Fe-Ni/FWAC, for the sorptive removal of Methylene blue. The two synthesised materials have been characterized with different analytical techniques, like PXRD, FT-IR, TGA-DTG, BET, UV-DRS, and SEM-EDAX to confirm the physico-chemical properties. The Surface area ofthe composite, Fe-Ni/FWAC, reduced significantly from 952 m2 g-1 to 873 m2 g-1 suggesting successful loading of binary metal oxide particles in void space of FWAC framework. The sorption parameters, pH, dye concentration, material dosages, for the both materials have been optimized and sorption data has been analyzed with isotherms, kinetics, and thermodynamics models in the temperature range 303-323 K. As a result, the synthesized FWAC and Fe-Ni/FWAC served as an affordable, and sustainable materials for comprehensive water purification.