Preparation and characterization of activated carbon from leather waste microwave-induced pyrophosphoric acid activation

• Leather waste was used as precursor.
• H4P2O7 was used as the activation agent to make the structure of carbons.
• Microwave technique was adopted to prepare activated carbon.
• Maximum methylene blue capacity of 303.03 mg/g was reported using Langmuir isotherm.

The present study probes the preparation of activated carbon using pyrophosphoric acid (H4P2O7) as the activating agent by microwave heating from leather waste (LW). The effect of microwave power level and radiation time on BET surface area and carbon yield of activated carbon (AC) was discussed. The properties of AC were characterized by thermogravimetric analyses (TGA), the element analyzer, scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and Fourier transforms infrared spectroscopy (FTIR). Methylene blue (MB) was chosen as model dye compound to evaluate the adsorption behavior. The best conditions for preparing activated carbon were identified to be: microwave power level of 700 W and radiation time of 15 min with BET surface area of 638.57 m2/g and carbon yield of 36.25%. Equilibrium data were better fitted by the Langmuir isotherm model, indicating a monolayer adsorption capacity of 303.03 mg/g.