Chemical Activation of Apricot Pit-Derived Carbon Sorbents for the Effective Removal of Dyes in Environmental Remediation

The aim of this work is to study the properties of carbon materials prepared from apricot stones by carbonization at 300–900 °C and chemical activation by KOH with different ratios between components. It was found that increasing the carbonization temperature to 800–900 °C leads to the degradation of narrow micropores and the carbon matrix. The adsorbent materials were characterized with FTIR and SEM, and a specific surface area was calculated. Moreover, additional activation by HNO3 and annealing at 450 °C led to an increase in surface area up to 1300 m2/g. The obtained N-enriched sorbents show adsorption activities of 190–235 mg/g for methylene blue and 210–260 mg/g for methyl orange. The results of this study can be useful for future scale-up using the apricot material as a low-cost adsorbent for the removal of dyes in environmental remediation production.