Bamboo shoot skin: turning waste to a valuable adsorbent for the removal of cationic dye from aqueous solution

The successful utilization of adsorption methods in the dye wastewater treatment had promoted us to develop inexpensive adsorbents from industrial and agricultural wastes. The work appraised the application potentiality of bamboo shoot skin (BSS) as an adsorbent. Batch adsorption of methylene blue (MB) was conducted to investigate the influence of the dosage of adsorbent, concentration of MB, time of adsorption, temperature, and initial pH value on the adsorption properties of BSS. Four frequently used adsorption kinetic models were utilized to fit the experimental results, and the pseudo-second-order kinetic model with big correlation coefficient could well describe the adsorption kinetics. The experimental equilibrium data were fitted by two frequently used adsorption isotherm models, and the Langmuir isotherm model described well. Its maximum adsorption capacity was 29.88 mg/g. The obtained thermodynamic parameters indicated that the adsorption process was spontaneous and exothermic in nature. In addition, the adsorption mechanism and comparison of BSS with other adsorbents were also discussed.