Investigation of the effects of commercial activated carbon and NH4Cl-induced activated carbon on aniline removal from aqueous solutions: an equilibrium and kinetic study

Aniline is an important chemical compound which has wide applications in several industries such as dyestuffs, rubbers, pesticides and plastics. It is highly toxic and has injurious influences on human physical conditions and aquatic life. Therefore the purpose of this study is to investigate the effects of NH4Cl-induced activated carbon (NAC) and standard activated carbon (SAC) in aniline removal from aqueous solutions were investigated. This study is of experimental–intervention type. An UV-Visible spectrophotometer (CECIL CE7400) used For determination of remaining aniline concentrations. The effect of various parameters like adsorbent dose, pH, contact time and initial aniline concentration were studied for optimization. The results showed that the prepared NAC had a higher absorption capacity than standard activated one. The maximum adsorption capacity of aniline onto SAC and NAC was 1666 and 1000 mg/g, respectively, and the rate removal was dependended to pH, contact time, aniline concentration and absorption type. Results of equilibrium experiments indicated that the adsorption process of aniline onto SAC and NAC follows Langmuir model (R 2> 0.99.47 and 0.99,776). Also, kinetics of adsorption process follows pseudo second-order model with correlation R2> 0.99.97 and 0.99,30 respectively for SAC and NAC. These consequences show that the developed NAC was a more competent adsorbent than SAS for removal aniline in water.