Activated biochar is a promising porous carbonaceous
adsorbent
material for organic pollutant removal, but it remains challenging
to obtain high porosity and aromaticity through a simple and low-cost
synthetic method. The common adsorption mechanisms of organic dyes
on activated biochar should be further investigated in order to guide
the synthesis of high-efficiency adsorbent materials. Here, we proposed
a high-yield (up to 40 wt %) synthetic method of phosphoric acid-activated
biochar from pomelo peel (PPC) with a high specific area of 877.3
m2/g through a facile thermal treatment at a relatively
low temperature (250 °C). The specific activation mechanism of
H3PO4 in the preparation of the adsorbent was
investigated by a range of experiments and characterizations. The
kinetic and isotherm experiments are also conducted to evaluate its
dye adsorption behavior. According to the adsorption experiment results,
PPC exhibits high saturated adsorption capacities for methyl orange
(MO, 239.1 mg/g), rhodamine B (RhB, 2821.8 mg/g), methylene blue (MB,
580.5 mg/g), and crystal violate (CV, 396.6 mg/g) according to the
Langmuir model. The maximum initial concentration of each dye solution
for acquiring 90% removal efficiency is estimated to be 234.55 ppm
(MO), 2943.8 ppm (RhB), 633.8 ppm (MB), and 423.6 ppm (CV) at 298
K with an adsorbent dosage of 1 g/L. The characterization results
also indicate PPC has a complex synergetic mechanism for ionic dye
adsorption behavior. This provides perspectives regarding PPC as a
promising biochar adsorbent from biomass waste, which is probably
useful for high-efficiency dye removal in water treatment.