Dye removal of activated carbons prepared from NaOH-pretreated rice husks by low-temperature solution-processed carbonization and H3PO4 activation

A coupling of low-temperature sulfuric acid-assisted carbonization and H3PO4 activation was employed to convert NaOH-pretreated rice husks into activated carbons with extremely high surface area (2028 m2 g−1) and integrated characteristics. The influences of the activation temperature and impregnation ratio on the surface area, pore volume of activated carbons were thoroughly investigated. The morphology and surface chemistry of activated carbons were characterized using N2 sorption, FTIR, XPS, SEM, TEM, etc. The adsorption capacity of resulting carbons obtained under optimum preparation conditions was systematically evaluated using methylene blue under various simulated conditions. The adsorption process can be well described by both Langmuir isotherm model and the pseudo-second order kinetics models; and the maximum monolayer capacity of methylene blue was ca. 578 mg g−1.