Microwaves initiated synthesis of activated carbon-based composite hydrogel for simultaneous removal of copper(II) ions and direct red 80 dye: A multi-component adsorption system

We present a novel microwave initiated preparation of polyacrylamide/activated carbon hydrogel (PAAm-FAc) in this article and characterized by FT-IR, pHzpc and Boehm titration. The adsorbent was assessed for competitive adsorption of copper(II) and direct red 80 from a binary mixture in a single-staged batch process as a function of volume of binary mixture/mass of adsorbent (V0/M0) ratio at varying orders of second pollutant concentration. A competitive, multi-component Langmuir isotherm was used to express the adsorption process and the model was applied for calculating adsorbed or equilibrium individual pollutant concentration (Cad,eq,i or Ceq,i) at a fixed V0/M0 ratio for a combination of pollutants in a batch reactor. The data obtained indicated that the decrease of V0/M0 ratio with the addition of second pollutant influenced the amount of copper or direct red 80 removed. The prepared adsorbent is efficient and useful in multi-component adsorption system.