KOH-super activated carbon from biomass waste: Insights into the paracetamol adsorption mechanism and thermal regeneration cycles

Highlights: • KOH-super activated carbon (SAC) was first produced from Jatoba's barks. • SAC was successfully applied in the paracetamol (PCT) adsorption. • The regenerated SAC (RSAC) was obtained after several thermal regeneration cycles. • SAC and RSAC showed S_BET values of 2794 m² g⁻¹ and 889 m² g⁻¹, respectively. • A PCT adsorption mechanism was proposed based on the molecular orbital theory. -- Abstract: A super activated carbon (SAC) was produced by KOH-activation of a biomass waste for paracetamol (PCT) adsorption from aqueous solution and for adsorption-thermal regeneration cycles. The SAC and the regenerated SAC after five adsorption-regeneration cycles (RSAC-5th) were fully characterized by several techniques. The N₂ physisorption showed that the S_BET values of the SAC and RSAC-5th are remarkably different, being 2794 m² g⁻¹ and 889 m² g⁻¹, respectively. The XPS analysis demonstrated that the SAC surface is composed by oxygen containing-groups, whilst the RSAC-5th also presents nitrogen ones, provenient from the PCT molecules. The adsorption studies revealed that the maximum adsorption capacity (Q_m) for the SAC (356.22 mg g⁻¹) is higher than that for RSAC-5th (113.69 mg g⁻¹). Also, the results demonstrated that the PCT adsorption is governed by both physisorption and chemisorption and the ab initio calculations showed the chemisorption mainly occurs in carboxylic groups.