Cereus sp. as potential biosorbent for removal of Congo red from aqueous solution: isotherm and kinetic investigations.

Elimination of toxic dyes from industrial effluents before discharge into the environment is very essential to reduce the impact created on the environment. The process of adsorption is widely used for the removal of toxic dyes through suitable adsorbents. In the present study, a novel adsorbent prepared from Cereus sp. for the removal of Congo red from the aqueous solution phase. Adsorption experiment was conducted in batch mode and the effect of adsorbent dose (1-12 g/l), dye concentration (100-250 mg/l), and contact time (5-120 min) was determined. Twelve isotherm models namely Langmuir, Freundlich, Jovanovic, Temkin, Elovich, Dubinin-Radushkevich, Halsey, Hill-Deboer, Flory-Huggins, Flower-Guggenheim, Kiselev, and Harkins-Jura were fitted with the experimental data. Cuticle-removed cladodes (CRC) from biomass gave maximum adsorption capacity of 27.02 mg/g, whereas cuticle (C) resulted in maximum adsorption capacity of 52.63 mg/g according to Langmuir isotherm. Pseudo-first-order, pseudo-second-order, and intra-particle diffusion kinetic models were examined. Pseudo-second-order kinetics better fitted for both adsorbents. This is the first exhaustive study to systematically find cuticle portion has better adsorption of Congo red than the cladodes of Cereus sp. The study also highlights that cutin polyesters present in the cuticle might be responsible for higher adsorption of dyes compared with its counterpart CRC. The present study provides the first evidence that cutin polymer can be used for adsorption of Congo red. It significantly contributes to advancement for new biobased materials for monitoring and remediation of water resources contaminated with toxic dyes.