Mandarin biochar-CO-TETA was utilized for Acid Red 73 dye adsorption from water, and its isotherm and kinetic studies were investigated

Environmental pollution is a major issue today due to the release of dyestuff waste into the environment through industrial wastewater. There is a need for affordable and effective adsorbents to remove harmful dyes from industrial waste. In this study, Mandarin biochar-CO-TETA (MBCOT) adsorbent was prepared and used to remove Acid Red 73 (AR73) dye from aqueous solutions. The efficiency of dye removal was influenced by various factors such as solution pH, contact time, initial AR73 dye concentration, and MBCOT dosage. All experiments were conducted at 25 ± 2 °C, and the optimal pH was determined to be 1.5. The optimal conditions for dye removal were found to be an AR73 dye concentration of 100 mg/L, an MBCOT dosage of 1.5 g/L, and a contact time of 150 min, resulting in a 98.08% removal rate. Various models such as pseudo-first-order (PFO), pseudo-second-order (PSO), film diffusion (FD), and intraparticle diffusion (IPD) were used to determine the adsorption kinetics of AR73 dye onto MBCOT. The results showed that the PSO model best explains the AR73 dye adsorption. Furthermore, Langmuir and Freundlich's isotherm models were studied to explain the adsorption mechanism using experimental data. The adsorption capacities at equilibrium (qe) in eliminating AR73 dye varied from 92.05 to 32.15, 128.9 to 65.39, 129.25 to 91.69, 123.73 to 111.77, and 130.54 to 125.01 mg/g. The maximum adsorption capacity (Qm) was found to be 140.85 mg/g. In conclusion, this study demonstrates that biochar produced from mandarin peels has the potential to be an effective and promising adsorbent for removing AR73 dye from water. © The Author(s) 2024.