Sterculia foetida fruit shell based activated carbon for the effective removal of industrial effluents

In this work, Sterculia foetida fruit shells were used for the preparation of activated carbon and utilized for the removal of industrial effluent methylene blue is described. The carbon materials were prepared by washing the shells with water, dried in sunlight and subjected to heating at 700 ​°C in a muffle furnace to get the carbon material. This is divided into three portions, one is used as pristine and two portions were subjected to physical activation using steam and chemical activation using K₂CO₃. The impurities were removed by treatment with NaOH (0.1 ​M) and subsequently with HCl (0.1 M). Turbostatic structure was determined by XRD and the specific surface area was determined using BET showed 4, 1017 and 596 ​m²/g as the surface areas. Using these activated carbon materials, we have achieved 93% removal of methylene blue, found in industrial effluents.