Synthesize activated carbon from used tea leaves and employ it to remove cadmium (II) from wastewater-related sources.

Abstract

In this paper, activated carbon synthesized by recycling tea waste is examined. The small pieces of activated carbon that were made were looked at using various methods such as imaging microscopy, energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy, and nitrogen absorption. We found that the activated carbon could remove Cd(II) ions from water-based solutions. Under perfect conditions (25°C, pH 7-8, and contact times of 10-120 minutes), the highest adsorption rates for Cd(II) ions were 98%. For Cd(II), the adsorption results were in accordance with the Freundlich (R² values of 0.99941) and Langmuir (R² values of 0.9871) isotherm models. The results indicate that the activated carbon has a very high adsorption capacity; using the pH range of 7-9 and the contact period of 60-120 minutes, the removal efficiencies for Cd(II) were more than 96%.