Title: Decolourisation of malachite green dye by potassium carbonate-treated kernel shell adsorbent

Authors: Aw Yeong Pei-Yee; Muhammad Abbas Ahmad Zaini

Addresses: School of Chemical and Energy Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, 81310 UTM Johor Bahru, Johor, Malaysia ' Centre of Lipids Engineering and Applied Research (CLEAR), Ibnu-Sina Institute for Scientific and Industrial Research (ISI-SIR), Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, 81310 UTM Johor Bahru, Johor, Malaysia

Abstract: The present study attempts to utilise potassium carbonate-treated kernel shell adsorbent for the decolourisation of malachite green solution. The adsorbent was characterised using FESEM, surface area analyser and FTIR. The bottle-point-technique was used to evaluate the adsorptive characteristics of kernel shell adsorbent. Results show that the equilibrium data are better represented by the Langmuir isotherm with the maximum malachite green removal of 15 mg/g. The pseudo-first-order model fitted well to the kinetics data, suggesting the diffusion-type adsorption of malachite green onto the kernel shell adsorbent. The chemically-treated kernel shell adsorbent is a potential candidate for the decolourisation of cationic dye in water.

Keywords: adsorbent; chemical treatment; decolourisation; malachite green; palm kernel shell.

DOI: 10.1504/IJEWM.2020.107567

International Journal of Environment and Waste Management, 2020 Vol.25 No.4, pp.498 - 507

Accepted: 02 Jan 2019
Published online: 01 Jun 2020 *

Full-text access for editors Full-text access for subscribers Purchase this article Comment on this article