Carbon from Cassava peel, an agricultural waste, as an adsorbent in the removal of dyes and metal ions from aqueous solution

Cassava (Manihot esculenta) is a short lived erect perennial shrub, planted vegetatively from hard wood stem cuttings. It is an important crop across a wide range of tropical environments and is a significant component of cro pping systems. Cassava peel is an agricultural waste from the food processi ng industry. Activated carbons prepared from waste cassava peel employing p hysical and chemical methods were tested for their efficiency in the remova l of dyes and metal ions from aqueous solution. While both of these were ef ficient as adsorbents for dyes and metal ions, the material impregnated wit h H3PO4 showed higher efficiency than the heat treated materials. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.