Removal of Direct Red 12B by garlic peel as a cheap adsorbent: Kinetics, thermodynamic and equilibrium isotherms study of removal

•Efficiency of garlic peel for removal of Direct Red 12B was investigated.•The important analytical parameters were investigated.•The equilibrium data fitted well with the Langmuir model.•The pseudo-second-order kinetic model fits better with experimental data.

The removal of dyes from industrial waste is very important from health and hygiene point of view and for environmental protection. In this work, efficiency and performance of garlic peel (GP) adsorbent for the removal of Direct Red 12B (DR12B) from wastewater was investigated. The influence of variables including pH, concentration of the dye and amount of adsorbent, particle size, contact time and temperature on the dye removal has been investigated. It was observed that the pseudo-second-order kinetic model fits better with good correlation coefficient and the equilibrium data fitted well with the Langmuir model. More than 99% removal efficiency was obtained within 25 min at adsorbent dose of 0.2 g per 50 ml for initial dye concentration of 50 mg L−1. Calculation of various thermodynamic parameters such as, Gibb’s free energy, entropy and enthalpy of the on-going adsorption process indicate feasibility and endothermic nature of DR12B adsorption.

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