Methylene blue removal capabilities of activated carbon doped nanofibres

The importance of adsorbents in wastewater treatment is related to their pollutant removal efficiency. The performance in the treatment process depends on the surface area, morphology, and chemical structure of the adsorbents. Since these properties can be controlled in both nanofibres and activated carbon, activated carbon (AC) doped nanofibres were used to remove methylene blue (MB) from the aqueous medium in this study. For this purpose, AC was synthesized from human hair by chemical activation and characterized. By this means, AC possessing 561 m 2 /g Brunauer-Emmet-Teller (BET) surface area and 6.5% ash content was obtained. Thermogravimetric analysis of the AC showed that approximately. 50% of the initial weight decomposed at 750°C. The synthesized AC was doped into the silk fibroin (SF) electrospinning solution at the ratios of 1% and 5% (w/v). Scanning electron microscope and energy dispersive X-ray analyses, and BET surface area measurements were conducted for characterization. Finally, batch adsorption tests were performed under different conditions, assisted with an ultrasonic bath. According to the test results, 5% AC-doped nanofibre web with 15 mg of adsorbent amount exhibited the best performance among nanofibre webs with an adsorption amount of 262.3 mg/g. This value was achieved at pH 12, 50°C, and an ultrasonic bath-assisted process duration of 10 min. The overall results showed that the AC synthesized from human hair-doped SF nanofibre webs has the potential to remove MB from textile wastewater.