Carbon-based adsorbents from used rubber slipper for dye removal

Abstract

Carbon-based adsorbents were prepared from used rubber slipper through steam and potassium hydroxide activation for methylene blue removal. The materials were characterized for thermal decomposition, surface functional groups and specific surface area. Adsorbent prepared through potassium hydroxide activation shows a greater surface area of 76.2 m2 /g and a higher maximum adsorption capacity of 60.2 mg/g. The steam-activated adsorbent displays a reasonably good adsorption capacity of 24 mg/g despite its trivial surface area of 0.543 m2 /g. The equilibrium and kinetics data fitted well with the Langmuir and pseudo-kinetics models, respectively. The used rubber slipper is a promising adsorbent candidate for dye removal from water.