Adsorptive potential of tassel activated carbon towards the removal of metformin hydrochloride from pharmaceutical effluent.

In the present study, tassel which is a zero-value agricultural waste was used to produce a low-cost activated carbon using phosphoric acid as the activating agent. The prepared tassel activated carbon (ZMTAC) was characterized by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and X-ray diffraction (XRD). The adsorbent was applied for adsorption of an emerging contaminant, metformin hydrochloride (MH) from pharmaceutical effluent.