Adsorption of Phenol from Aqueous Solution Using Lantana camara, Forest Waste: Kinetics, Isotherm, and Thermodynamic Studies

The present work investigates the potential of Lantana camara, a forest waste, as an adsorbent for the phenol reduction in wastewater. Batch studies were conducted with adsorbent treated with HCl and KOH to determine the influence of various experimental parameters such as pH, contact time, adsorbent dosage, and phenol concentration. The experimental conditions were optimized for the removal of phenol from wastewater. Equilibrium isotherms for the adsorption of phenol were analyzed by Freundlich, Langmuir, Temkin, and Dubinin-Radushkevich isotherm models. Thermodynamic parameters like the Gibbs free energy (ΔG°), enthalpy (ΔH°), and entropy (ΔS°) were also determined and they showed that the adsorption process was feasible, spontaneous, and exothermic in the temperature range of 298–328 K. The kinetic data were fitted with pseudo-second-order model. The equilibrium data that followed Langmuir model with the monolayer adsorption capacity was found to be 112.5 mg/g and 91.07 mg/g for adsorbent treated with HCl and KOH, respectively, for the concentration of phenol ranging from 25 to 250 mg/L. This indicates that the Lantana camara was a promising adsorbent for the removal of phenol from aqueous solutions.