Adsorption of Textile Dyes From Aqueous Solution Using Activated Carbon From Human Hair

Reaction Kinetics, Mechanisms and Catalysis (2022) 135:1891–1903
https://doi.org/10.1007/s11144-022-02224-8
Adsorption of textile dyes from aqueous solution using

activated carbon from human hair
Imane Lansari1 · Belkacem Benguella1 · Natalia Kruchinina2 ·

Alexey Nistratov2
Received: 16 March 2022 / Accepted: 21 May 2022 / Published online: 14 June 2022
© Akadémiai Kiadó, Budapest, Hungary 2022
Abstract
The adsorption of textile dyes (reactive violet and acid green 4G) was carried out
using adsorption on activated carbon from human hair. Different analyses were done
to analyze the qualities and performances of activated carbon such as moisture con-
tent, carbon tetrachloride number, benzene number, methylene blue adsorption test
and iodine number. The effect of contact time, adsorbate initial concentration and
pH were investigated. All the obtained results show the effectiveness of the acti-
vated carbon in the adsorption of the two textile dyes. The equilibrium time was
found to be achieved after 60 min of contact with an adsorption capacity of 76.22%
for the adsorption of reactive violet and 92.86% for the adsorption of acid green
4G. The parameters studied show that the adsorption capacity of dyes increases with
the increasing of initial concentration and the adsorption is faster in pH = 4 for the
adsorption of reactive violet and pH = 6 for adsorption of acid green 4G on activated
carbon.
Keywords Adsorption · Activated carbon · Textile dye · Reactive violet · Acid green
4G
Introduction
Water is a vital element and one of the most essential resources for life on earth.
Industries all over the world (such as textile, paints, pharmaceutical, cosmetics,
metal coatings…) remain the primary cause of water pollution with toxic waste
that can be stable and weakly biodegradable [1–8]. Textile industry ranks the first
in freshwater pollution with a production of 700,000 to 1,000,000 tons annually and
* Imane Lansari
imane.lansari@univ-tlemcen.dz
1
Inorganic Chemistry and Environment Laboratory, University of Tlemcen, P. O. Box 119,
13000 Tlemcen, Algeria
2
D. Mendeleev University of Chemical Technology of Russia, Moscow, Russia
13
Vol.:(0123456789)
1892 Reaction Kinetics, Mechanisms and Catalysis (2022) 135:1891–1903
17 to 20% of its releasing into environment during the dyeing process [9]. For this
reason, several works have been developed to remedy to this problem such as chemi-
cal treatment, advanced oxidation process, biological degradation, membrane sepa-
ration and adsorption [10–15]. The adsorption process by solid adsorbent is one of
the most efficient methods for the removal of organic contaminants from wastewater
and considered to be stable compared to other treatment processes [16]. Activated
carbon is being highly efficient and become one of the most studied materials for
adsorption of textile dyes [17]. As well as its effectiveness due to the high surface
area, pore volume and pore size distribution, activated carbon is an economically
accessible material that can be prepared using residues [18]. Activated carbon used
in this present work has been produced from human hair due to its high level car-
bon content and abundance in all hairdressers bin all over the world. This low coast
recycled material is impregnate with additive compounds (H2SO4 in our work) to
improve its chemical reactivity.
This study represents the second attempt to produce activated carbon from human
hair. The first attempt was done in the previous work [19].
This investigation aims at using activated carbon in the removal of textile dyes
such as reactive violet (RV) and acid green 4G (AG4G) from aqueous solution using
adsorption process.
Materials and methods
Materials
Reactive violet (RV) and acid green 4G (AG4G) are textile dyes obtained from Rus-
sia textile industry. Their structural formula is shown in Fig. 1 [20].
The raw material used to prepare activated carbon (AC) is human hair that was
obtained from hair salons from Tlemcen–Algeria.
Fig. 1 Structural formula of textile dyes
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Reaction Kinetics, Mechanisms and Catalysis (2022) 135:1891–1903 1893
Samples preparation
To obtain activated carbon with H2SO4, human hair was washed with distilled water,
dried at 50 °C and then impregnated in H 2SO4 solution (95%) at ratio 1:3. The mix-
ture was shaking for 30 min at 85 °C, then hair was washed 5 times with 50 mL of
clear water and dried at 100 °C for 24 h.
All qualities and performances of AC were carried out with different analyses and
regrouped in Table 1. Moisture content in AC, carbon tetrachloride number and ben-
zene number reveal that the AC has mezopores. Methylene blue adsorption test and
iodine number reveal that AC has more mezopores than micropores [21].
Adsorption experiments
The adsorption kinetics at room temperature were carried out by putting 100 mL
of dye solution (100 mg/L) into contact in an Erlenmeyer flask with 0.1 g of AC at
constant medium shaking speed for 1 h. Adsorption of dyes was obtained by meas-
uring the maximum adsorption peak (at λmax = 600 nm for AO and λmax = 710 nm for
AG4G) using an Optizen POP UV–Vis spectrophotometer.
Results and discussion
Effect of contact time
The evolution of adsorption of RV and AG4G by AC is represented in Fig. 2.

The adsorption capacity obtained after 1 h of contact time was equal to 76.22%
for the adsorption of RV on AC and 92.86% for adsorption of AG4G on AC.
Kinetic of contact time on dye adsorption by AC
To evaluate the rate constant, the equation proposed by Gabor Lente was used [22]
using the following formula (Eq. 1):
Yt = Xe−kt + E (1)
In the formula, X is the term of amplitude, K is the first order rate constant, E is
called the end point. The kinetics of RV and AG4G adsorbed by AC are shown in
Fig. 3.
Table 1 Quality and performances of AC

Test H2O (cm3/g) CCl4 (cm3/g) C6H6 (cm3/g) MB (mg/g) I2 (mg/g)
AC 0.19 0.16 0.04 233.91 228.14
13
Fig. 2 Evolution of adsorption of textile dyes, [dye] = 100 mg/L, Vsolution = 100 mL, mAC = 0.1 g, pH nat-

ural, constant T
Fig. 3 Kinetic adsorption of textile dyes, [dye] = 100 mg/L, Vsolution = 100 mL, mAC = 0.1 g, pH natural,

constant T
13
Exponential curves are easily handed for cases when observed signal is integrated
in time and/or space. In addition, integration in time (in interval τ) is a key question
when the response time of the monitoring method is not faster than the process stud-
ied [23]. The integrated observation is described by the Eq. 2 [22]:
1+𝜏 (
𝜏∫
1 1 − e−k𝜏 −kt
(2)
)
Yt𝜏 = Xe−ks + E ds = Xe + E
t k𝜏
In the formula, X is the calculated amplitude; E is the end point and k the kinetic
(first order) constant. R2 (coefficient of determination) and all of the previous data
are shown in Table 2. It was found that the faster adsorption was obtained with the
adsorption of AG4G on AC that corresponds to a value of k equal to 0.0871 min−1.
Effect of initial concentration
The effect of initial dye concentration has an essential share in the determination
of the driving forces among the surface of adsorbent and dye solution. The star-
ing dye concentration was studied with varying the initial concentration from 30 to
100 mg/L. This effect is shown in Figs. 4 and 5.
As shown, the adsorption of the two dyes by the AC is clearly influenced by
the initial concentration. The presence of high amount dyes concentration at a
constant adsorbent dose has two opposite effects. It increases the quantity of dye
adsorbed and decreases the removal efficiency. At low concentration, the adsorption
becomes easier and faster because of the high percentage of adsorbent free surface
to the number of dye fragment. But at high concentration, the ratio becomes low.
Fast adsorbent saturation occurs at high concentrations of dye and adsorbent ability
becomes suffering owing to the lake of the surface locations [24–26].
Same results were found by Abdel-Aziz and all in the removal of basic dyes on
activated carbon prepares from apple leaves [27].
Effect of initial pH
The study of adsorption of RV and AG4G has been done in range of pH from 2 to
8 because of the great influence of pH on the adsorption of organic pollutants. The
pH was adjusted by addition of NaOH (0.1 N) for neutral basic condition and H2SO4
(0.1 N) for acid condition [28]. The pHZPC obtained using drift method [29] is equal
to 4.1.
The obtained results are shown in Figs. 6 and 7.
For the adsorption of RV on AC, the rate of the adsorption increases in acidic pH
conditions from pH = 2 to pH = 4 where the adsorption is high. This may be owed
to the attraction between the dye negatively charged and the positive AC surface
(pH < pHpzc). However, when pH > pHpzc there is a decrease of adsorption rate. That
may be caused by the repulsion between the negative charges of the dye and the AC
surface [30, 31].
13
1896
13
Table 2 Kinetic results of dyes adsorption
Dye E Standard errors X Standard errors K (min−1) Standard errors R2 Standard errors
RV 8.62 × 10–5 6.10 × 10–6 2.06 × 10–4 1.01 × 10–5 0.0490 6.11 × 10–3 0.981 9.55 × 10–10

–5 –6 –5 –6 –3
AG4G 1.19 × 10 2.03 × 10 9.48 × 10 4.42 × 10 0.0871 9.65 × 10 0.983 1.59 × 10–10
Fig. 4 Effect of initial concentration of RV on the adsorption, Vsolution = 100 mL, mAC = 0.1 g, pH natural,

constant T
Fig. 5 Effect of initial concentration of AG4G on the adsorption, Vsolution = 100 mL, mAC = 0.1 g, pH nat-

ural, constant T
For the adsorption of AG4G on AC, the rate of adsorption is high (100% at
pH = 2) and decreases with the rise of pH between 2 and 4. This may be due to
the competition of the surface of adsorbent positively charged (pH < pHpzc) with the
13
Fig. 6 Effect of initial pH on the adsorption of RV, [RV] = 100 mg/L, V

solution = 100 mL, mAC = 0.1 g,
constant T
Fig. 7 Effect of initial pH on the adsorption of AG4G, [AG4G] = 100 mg/L,

Vsolution = 100 mL,
mAC = 0.1 g, constant T
13
Fig. 8 Kinetic of pH effect on adsorption of RV, [RV] = 100 mg/L, V

solution = 100 mL, mAC = 0.1 g, con-
stant T
+ for the negative charge of the dye. At pH between 4 and 6, the

positive charge of H
rate of adsorption increases and reaches 100% of adsorption rate and then decreases
because of the repulsion between the negative charges of both the dye and the AC
(pH > pHpzc).
Kinetic of pH effect on dyes adsorption
The kinetics of the dyes adsorption under pH effect was studied using the model
proposed by Gabor Lente (Eqs. 1 and 2).
The kinetics of RV and AG4G are shown in Figs. 8 and 9, respectively. The cal-
culated amplitude (X), the endpoint (E), the kinetic constants (k) and the coefficient
of determination (R2) are regrouped in Table 3.
The kinetic studied show that the faster adsorption was obtained with pH = 4 for
the adsorption of RV on AC with k equal to 0.049 min−1 (R2 = 0.98) and pH = 6 for
adsorption of AG4G on AC with k equal to 0.091 min−1 (R2 = 0.99).
13
Fig. 9 Kinetic of pH effect on adsorption of AG4G, [AG4G] = 100 mg/L, V

solution = 100 mL, mAC = 0.1 g,
constant T
Conclusion
Activated carbon was produced from human hair and activated with chemical rea-
gent (H2SO4) that improves its efficiency in the removal of textile dyes (reactive
violet and acid green 4G). All the obtained results show the effectiveness of the
activated carbon in the adsorption of the two textile dyes. The equilibrium time
was found to be achieved after 60 min of contact with an adsorption capacity
of 76.22% for the adsorption of reactive violet and 92.86% for the adsorption of
acid green 4G. The parameters studied show that the adsorption capacity of dyes
increases with the increasing of initial concentration and the adsorption is faster
in pH = 4 for the adsorption of reactive violet and pH = 6 for adsorption of acid
green 4G on activated carbon.
13
Table 3 Kinetic results of pH effect on adsorption of dyes, [dye] = 100 mg/L, V
solution = 100 mL, mAC = 0.1 g, constant T
Dye pH E Standard errors X Standard errors K (min−1) Standard errors R2 Standard errors
RV 2 1.38 × 10–4 4.88 × 10–6 1.69 × 10–5 6.71 × 10–6 0.0349 3.67 × 10–3 0.98 4.33 × 10–10

–5 –6 –4 –5 –3
4 8.62 × 10 6.10 × 10 2.06 × 10 1.01 × 10 0.0490 6.11 × 10 0.98 9.55 × 10–10
–4 –6 –4 –6 –3
6 1.68 × 10 4.497 × 10 1.31 × 10 5.81 × 10 0.0313 3.72 × 10 0.98 3.19 × 10–10
–4 –6 –4 –6 –3
8 1.90 × 10 1.93 × 10 1.17 × 10 2.83 × 10 0.0392 2.47 × 10 0.99 0.77 × 10–10
–6 –6 –5 –6 –3
AG4G 2 4.10 × 10 3.40 × 10 9.84 × 10 5.35 × 10 0.0445 6.20 × 10 0.97 2.72 × 10–10
–5 –6 –5 –6 –3
4 2.13 × 10 3.85 × 10 8.034 × 10 6.02 × 10 0.0440 8.85 × 10 0.95 3.45 × 10–10
–6 –6 –4 –6 –3
6 3.96 × 10 1.19 × 10 1.05 × 10 2.64 × 10 0.0912 5.40 × 10 0.99 0.56 × 10–10
–5 –6 –5 –6 –3
8 1.19 × 10 2.03 × 10 9.48 × 10 4.42 × 10 0.0871 9.65 × 10 0.98 1.59 × 10–10
1901
13
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Reaction Kinetics, Mechanisms and Catalysis (2022) 135:1891–1903