Application of carbon from pomegranate husk for the removal of ibuprofen, cadmium and methylene blue from water

The presence of pharmaceutical products, dyes, and toxic metal ions in water is a major problem worldwide. This work developed low-cost pomegranate-based materials to uptake ibuprofen, cadmium and methylene blue from water. Pomegranate husks (PPH) were carbonized at 400 °C to form carbonized pomegranate husk (CPH), and nanoparticles were loaded into the carbon surface (NPH) by co-precipitation. SEM micrographs showed that the morphology of carbon was highly porous compared to pristine pomegranate husk. The data for BET revealed that CPH and NPH, had about a 20-fold increase in surface area of 142 m(2)/g and 190 m(2)/g respectively compared with 9.27 m(2)/g for PPH. The composites exhibited larger pore sizes and volumes. TEM images confirmed the loading of nanoparticles. The FTIR results showed that the materials had on their surface oxygenated groups such as –OH, –C]O, –COC and other groups like –NH and –C]C which are anticipated to play an essential role in the sorption of the pollutants. It was found that removal efficiency increased when there was a progressive increase in pollutant concentration for all adsorbents. The best pH value of the solution for the sorption processes was pH 8. The recorded adsorption capacities at pH 8 for Cd(II), IBU and MB were 92.85, 39.77 and 95.89 mg/g for NPH, 72.60, 32.58 and 80.59 mg/g for CPH and 32.78, 16.12 and 40.79 mg/g for PPH. Contact time studies showed three sorption steps. Step 1: rapid increase at the initial stage. Step 2: marginal uptake. Step 3: plateau. The trends indicated that sorption was influenced by temperature variation. The data for the thermodynamic parameter △H(o) suggest that all the sorption processes were endothermic; the obtained positive values indicate this. The △H(o) for PPH was between (64.33–69.08 kJ/mol), 82.84–86.03 kJ/mol for CPH and 87.17–88.96 kJ/mol for NPH. For PPH, molecular interactions were physisorption, and chemisorption for CPH and NPH. The △S(o) has positive values, showing increased freedom during the sorption. The adsorbents followed PSO based on uptake processes involving syngenetic mechanisms.