Preparation and characterization of activated carbon obtained from apricot pits for Cu(II) removal from aqueous solutions

Wastewater from chemical, petrochemical, and metallurgical industries contains different dissolved pollutants, characterized with high toxicity. In recent decades, industrial water treatment to remove heavy metal ions has become increasingly important due to their toxicity and the potential risk of accumulation in the food chain. This requires the application of various methods to reduce heavy metal ion concentrations to acceptable levels. In this respect, adsorption processes based on different sorbents are widely used for industrial wastewater treatment. For this investigation, apricot pits were pyrolyzed and chemically activated with potassium hydroxide to produce activated carbon. The adsorption capacity of the resulting material for removing Cu(II) ions from aqueous solutions was then investigated. The results have shown that these carbon-based adsorbents possess a high surface area and favourable textural characteristics, making them promising candidates for the removal of copper ions from aqueous solutions.