Preparation of activated carbon from agricultural wastes (almond shell and orange peel) for adsorption of 2-pic from aqueous solution

Activated carbon from agricultural waste almond shells (CAS) and orange peels (COP) was prepared. CAS and COP were characterized by FTIR, XRD and SEM. Adsorption of 2-pic by CAS and COP has been investigated. The kinetic of 2-pic was fitted well the pseudo-second-order kinetic model and rate constants of adsorption of 6.66 × 10−4 and 2.51 × 10−5 (g mg−1 min−1) for CAS and COP, respectively. Results showed that Langmuir isotherm model is better fitted for adsorption data quite reasonably than Freundlich model (R2 > 97). The maximum adsorption capacity from Langmuir equation was 166.7 mg g−1 and 288.57 mg g−1 for COP and CAS, respectively.