Date Palm Fiber as a novel precursor for porous activated carbon: Optimization, characterization and its application as Tylosin antibiotic scavenger from aqueous solution

This paper aims to produce a low-cost activated carbon based on the precursor material Date Palm Fiber by chemical activation with ZnCl₂. The preparation conditions, including the activation temperature, activation time and impregnation ratio (IR) were optimized by the rotatable central composite design of response surface methodology (RSM) to maximize the surface area and the yield. Therefore, the optimal conditions values were determined as 432°C for the activation temperature, 10 min for the activation time and 1.42 for the IR to produce an activated carbon with a high surface area and yield of 1726.11 m²/g and 54.3%, respectively. The optimized activated carbon (OAC) was characterized by CHNS-O analysis, Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET) isotherms, Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR), Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) and X-ray diffraction (XRD). Furthermore, equilibrium, kinetic and thermodynamic studies have been conducted to evaluate the derived activated carbon's performance at optimized Tylosin (TYL) removal conditions. The adsorption mechanism was elucidated. The high removal efficiency of TYL (99%) was obtained at pH 5.5 and ambient temperature. Langmuir isotherm and the pseudo-second-order model fit well the experimental data with a maximum adsorption capacity of 147 mg/g. The reusability up to eight adsorption-desorption cycles was tested. Experimental results indicate that OAC can be used as a potential sorbent for the organic pollutant removal from wastewaters.