Preparation, characterization and application of activated carbon from corn cob by KOH activation for removal of Hg(II) from aqueous solution.

In the present study, activated carbon was prepared from corn cob. Corn cob by potassium hydroxide activation. SEM, BET, Raman, FTIR and XPS analysis methods were used to characterize the physical and chemical properties of activated carbon. The effects of adsorbent dosage, adsorption time, pH and initial Hg(II) concentration on mercury ion removal rate were studied. The specific surface area of this material is 1054.2 m2 g-1. The Langmuir and Freundlich adsorption models were used to verify the adsorption isotherms. The adsorption isotherms were simulated well by the Langmuir model, which implied that it is a monolayer adsorption process. The kinetic data conformed to the pseudo-second-order model, which implied that the predominant process is chemisorption.