ABSTRACT
Caffeine's emergence as a pollutant has been observed in manufacturing practices in the pharmaceutical and personal care product industries. To address the issue, this study aims to explore the potential of using date seed-derived biochar for the adsorption of caffeine from aqueous solutions. A distinct porous structure of the biochar's surface was established by Scanning Electron Microscopy, and a chemical composition rich in aromatic moieties was revealed using Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR). The highest efficiency of caffeine removal, 60%, was achieved after 120 minutes at a pH of 2. The rate at which caffeine was adsorbed followed the pseudo-second order model. Both the Langmuir and Freundlich models were suitable for describing the adsorption, and the maximum amount of caffeine adsorbed was 18.94 mg/g, mainly due to interactions between caffeine and the biochar's heterogenous surface. These findings suggest that date seed biochar could be used as an economical and environmentally friendly adsorbent for caffeine from wastewater.
