Eggplant biomass based porous carbon for fast and efficient dye adsorption from wastewater

Adsorption techniques have been successfully applied in water purification for their simplicity, efficiency, and negligible byproducts. Porous carbon materials are effective dye adsorbents but have relatively low adsorption efficiency, slow adsorption rate, and high production cost, all of which need to be addressed for conducive practical applications. Herein, natural eggplant-based porous carbon materials (EPCMs) have been studied and successfully constructed to perform with high efficiency and fast rate of removal of dyes from wastewater. The hierarchical pore structure and well-developed mesoporous had a total pore volume of 0.6379 cm3/g and a maximum specific surface area of 516.0060 m2/g, which contributed to the high efficiency of adsorption (100%). The complete adsorption of Rhodamine B (basic and cationic dyes) solution within 25 min demonstrated its fast and high adsorption performance. The EPCMs also showed its efficiency in the absorption of various dyes, including methyl orange (acidic and anionic dye), methylene blue (basic and cationic dyes), and Yuan’qing B (reactive dye). Furthermore, the EPCMs were tested with actual wastewater from a production-based factory and recorded excellent removal effects as well, suggesting its prospective expansion for industrial applications. Therefore, this eggplant biomass-based porous carbon provides a promising approach for fast and highly efficient wastewater purification from dye-based contaminations.