Screening of factors that influence the preparation of Dialium guineense pods active carbon for use in methylene blue adsorption: a full factorial experimental design

Abstract

The results of this study revealed that the concentration of the activating agent had the most significant effect on the yield of the active carbon produced as well as on its adsorption capacity for methylene blue. The optimum preparation process conditions were found to be: concentration of activating agent 5M, activation time 30 min and activating agent, NaOH which resulted in an active carbon yield of 21.25%, and an adsorption capacity of 9.33509 mg MB per gram of active carbon. SEM and FTIR showed evidence of successful activation.