Removal of Hazardous Rhodamine B Dye by Using Chemically Activated Low Cost Adsorbent: Pine Cone Charcoal

Department of Chemistry, Punjabi University, Patiala, India. Corresponding Author: preetjudge@yahoo.co.in _____________________________________________________________________________________ Abstract Various severe environmental problems have been caused by the effluents coming from dye industries, as it contain a mixture of chemicals and dyestuff, which are very toxic to living organisms. The present work has been designed with an aim to use inexpensive and efficient technique for the removal of dyes. The present investigation revealed a potential use of Pine cone charcoal (PCC), pretreated with H2SO4 for the removal of hazardous Rhodamine B dye from aqueous solution. The adsorbent has been characterized with the help of FT-IR and SEM analysis. The adsorption studies have been carried out at different temperatures, adsorbent dose, dye concentrations and pH. The experimental data has been analyzed by Langmuir, Freundlich and Temkin adsorption isotherms and data fitted well for all these models. Thermodynamic parameters, i.e. change in free energy, enthalpy and entropy have also been evaluated. The negative value of free energy indicates the spontaneous nature and the positive value of enthalpy suggest the endothermic nature of the process. The adsorption of Rhodamine B follows Pseudo-second-order kinetics and intra-particle-diffusion model.