Efficacy of spent tea waste as chemically impregnated adsorbent involving ortho-phosphoric and sulphuric acid for abatement of aqueous phenol-isotherm, kinetics and artificial neural network modelling.

The current study emphasises on sorptive expulsion of phenol from aqueous solution using ortho-phosphoric acid (STAC-O) and sulphuric acid (STAC-H)-activated biochar derived from spent tea waste. STAC-O and STAC-H were instrumentally anatomised using scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), X-ray diffraction (XRD), BET surface area and thermal gravimetric analyser. Equilibrium and kinetic data were implemented for the investigative parametric batch study to prospect the influence of adsorbent dosage, contact time, initial concentration and pH for eradication of phenol from aqueous solution.