Sustainable and Green Synthesis of Carbon Nanofibers from Date Palm Residues and Their Adsorption Efficiency for Eosin Dye

Abstract

This work investigates the prospective usage of dried date palm residues for eosin Y and eosin B (ES-Y and ES-B) dye removal from an aqueous solution. A green synthesis route is utilized to prepare carbon nanofibers (CNFs) from date palm residues. We study the characteristics of carbon nanomaterials based on their composition and morphology. The characterization includes different types of instruments such as a Fourier-Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR), Brunauer Emmett Teller (BET), and Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM). Batch mode experimentations are conducted and studied utilizing various significant factors such as the dose of the adsorbent, solution pH, contact time, and the initial quantity of eosin molecules as a pollutant. The dye adsorption capability improves with an increasing adsorbent dose of up to 40 mg of CNFs. The adsorption of dyes onto CNFs achieves equilibrium in around 60 h, whereas the optimal starting dye concentration in this study is 50 ppm. Further, to study the under-investigated toxic molecules’ adsorption process mechanism on the nanomaterials’ active sites, we introduce kinetic models involving pseudo-first-order, pseudo-second-order, and models based on intra-particle diffusion. Langmuir and Freundlich’s isotherms are considered to study the equilibrium isotherms, and the Langmuir isotherm model deals considerably with the attained experimentation results.