Potential of oil palm frond cellulose nanocrystals-activated carbon hydrogel beads for the removal of paracetamol from aqueous media

Water pollution via pharmaceutical drugs such as paracetamol has been a highly concerning issue, and effective measures must be taken to treat these aquatic contaminants. Hence, the present study explored the use of cellulose nanocrystals (CNC) isolated from oil palm fronds (OPF), combined with commercial activated carbon (AC) to produce OPF CNC-AC hydrogel beads for paracetamol removal from aqueous media. The BET analysis showed that the OPF CNC-AC hydrogel beads possess a high BET surface area of 85.19 m 2 g −1 . FTIR analysis showed several peaks had higher intensities and were slightly shifted than those before adsorption, and the SEM analysis confirmed these findings. Adsorption studies were conducted to infer how solution pH, contact time, and initial paracetamol concentration affect the adsorption behaviour. It was revealed that the adsorption studies of paracetamol could be achieved at 0.6 g of adsorbent dosage, at a pH 3 with a contact time of 170 min under room temperature. Meanwhile, the pseudo-second order kinetic model and Langmuir isotherm model revealed the best correlation for the adsorption of paracetamol with a q max value of 21.34 mg g −1 and Gibbs free energy of adsorption (∆G) of −10.27 kJ mol −1 . Thus, monolayer adsorption was thought to occur at the surface of OPF CNC-AC hydrogel beads. This study suggests that OPF CNC-AC hydrogel beads could be a viable adsorbent for paracetamol removal from water used for consumption, which showed an efficiency of up to 79.98% in eliminating paracetamol dissolved in enriched aqueous solutions. Graphical Abstract