Adsorption of 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid on peanut shells: effect of initial concentration

Abstract

Pesticides are an integral part of modern agriculture in most countries as a tool for controlling pests. In the last fewdecades, increasing use of pesticides is polluting environment and water resources day by day. Adsorption is one ofthe most used method for removal of these pollutions due to the simple ease of processing, low cost and effective evenin very low concentrations. Active carbon is very efficient adsorbent for removing pesticides from aqueous solutionsthanks to its high surface area and porosity. However, the high cost of active carbon can be sometimes restricted forseveral purposes.In recent years, research on the production of low cost adsorbents alternative to commercially available activatedcarbon has increased. Therefore, in this work, peanut shells were used as an adsorbent for removing 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid (2,4-D) from aqueous solutions. The adsorption performance was studied depending oninitial concentrations of 2,4-D solutions.