Kinetics, Isotherms and Thermodynamic Modeling of Liquid Phase Adsorption of Crystal Violet Dye onto Shrimp-Waste in Its Raw, Pyrolyzed Material and Activated Charcoals

Shrimp waste and its charcoal derivatives were evaluated for the removal of crystal violet. Activation was conducted at 500 °C with phosphoric acid at the 1:2 and 1:3 ratios. Activated charcoals were more porous and had a more roughly surface containing mainly C, O, Ca N, and P. Equilibrium adsorption data were fitted using seven kinetic and six isotherms models. Activation created acidic moieties (>4700 µmol/g) and reduced the point of zero charge (<2.5). Freundlich isotherm best described the uptake of the dye onto the adsorbents suggesting a heterogeneous adsorption, whereas the Bangham and Avrami models best described the kinetics of adsorption process. An endothermic and spontaneous physisorption was responsible for the sorption phenomena in most adsorbents. The high removal of crystal violet was attributed to the high ionization capacity of the adsorbent coupled with the high external surface area (>44 m2/g). The best adsorption capacity (208 mg/g) was found for the activated and charred materials, whereas the lowest one (3.9 mg/g) was found for the pyrolyzed material. This research creates the possibility to deal with two environmental problems: (i) the reuse of shrimp waste and (ii) the removal of water pollutants such as crystal violet.