PREPARATION AND CHARACTERIZATION OF ACTIVATED CARBON DERIVED FROM PLANTAIN PEEL

A low-cost agricultural waste, Raw Plantain Peel (RPP) was utilized for the production of Plantain Peel Activated Carbon (PPAC) and characterized for its adsorptive potential in eliminating contaminants from aqueous solution. Orthophosphoric acid was used for the acid modification of the agricultural waste. The characterization of the RPP and PPAC were carried out using SEM, FTIR, and EDX analytical techniques. The SEM micrograph of PPAC depicted well-developed pores, supporting the adsorptive properties. Based on the FTIR analysis, the compound’s key functional groups are O-H, C-H, C=O, C-N which are responsible for the enhanced and efficient recognition of contaminants, it can also be noticed that the RPP and PPAC had different peaks of 3382.99 and 3437.53 〖cm〗^(-1) respectfully. The EDX analysis showed the following chemical compositions present on the surface of the activated plantain peel, both in terms of weight % and atomic percentage: 75.45%,75.53% of C, 3.15%, 3.85% of O, 1.92%, 1.87% of K, 19.48%,18.75% of Si. The high concentration of carbon and low concentration of oxygen demonstrates the efficiency of the adsorbent prepared from plantain peel.