ABSTRACT

The study investigated the pyrolysis of watermelon rinds at different

temperatures to obtain BC@400, BC@500, BC@600 and BC@700 for the
production of activated carbon using zinc oxide nanoparticle and hydrogen
peroxide (AC@ZnPO). The biochar samples at different temperatures and the
AC@ZnPO were characterized using various physicochemical techniques and
analytical methods to determine the moisture content (MC), volatile matter
(VM), ash, fixed carbon content (FC), elemental compositions, surface
properties, functional groups, crystallographic structure, thermal degradation
profile and the morphological representations. The biochar samples obtained at
different temperatures and the AC@ZnPO were applied to investigate the
preliminary adsorption of arsenic (As5+), cadmium (Cd2+), chromium (Cr6+), and
lead (Pb2+) from wastewater. The results revealed a decrease in the yield of
biochar with increasing pyrolysis temperature while the yield of the AC@ZnPO
increased after activation. The FC of the biochar samples were found to increase
with increasing temperature, but the FC increment in AC@ZnPO was
tremendous after the activation process, compared to the biochar samples. The
elemental compositions of the biochar samples declined with increasing the
pyrolysis temperature. The surface area of the materials increased with the
pyrolysis temperature and the activation process whereby AC@ZnPO had a
surface area of 327.934 m2/g and followed by BC@700 (194.810 m 2/g),
BC@600 (171.497 m2/g), BC@500 (157.446 m2/g) and BC@400 (119.530
m2/g). The adsorption studies demonstrated a higher adsorption capacity of
AC@ZnPO towards the metal ions, compared to BC@700, BC@600, BC@500
and BC@400. The maximum adsorption capacity of 654.452, 630.922, 706.832
and 605.666 mg/g for As5+, Cd2+, Cr6+, and Pb2+ was recorded by AC@ZnPO at
the pH of 3 for Cr6+ and 5 for As5+, Cd2+ and Pb2+, adsorbent dosage of 5 g/L,
time of 60 min, initial metal ions concentration of 100 mg/L and temperature of
40 ⁰C, respectively. The Langmuir model presented the best fit to the
equilibrium data, while pseudo-second order model showed best goodness of fit
to the kinetic data. The adsorption of the metal ions is endothermic in nature.
The produced AC@ZnPO showed effective removal of the heavy metal ions
from a multielement contaminated wastewater.

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