Effect of Pyrolysis Temperature on Mechanistic Transformation for Adsorption of Methylene Blue on Leached Rice‐Straw Biochar

Abstract Toxicity characteristic leaching procedure (TCLP) leached biochar is studied for adsorption of methylene blue (MB). Rice straw biochar obtained from slow pyrolysis at 400, 500, and 600 °C, respectively, is TCLP leached to furnish leached biochar, BL4, BL5, and BL6. The leached biochar BL4–6 have been characterized for pH, CHN analysis, ash, zeta potential, surface area morphology and functional groups. Batch adsorption studies are optimized for pH (3–9), adsorbent dose (0.5–4 g L −1 ), and initial MB concentration (20–135 mg L −1 ). Nonlinear fitting to Langmuir, Freundlich, and Redlich‐Peterson adsorption isotherm with due statistical treatment and error function analysis is carried out. Leached biochar, BL4, BL5, and BL6, is characterized by the dominance of carboxylic acid, lactone, and phenols moieties, respectively. The MB adsorption on leached biochar exhibits maximum adsorption of 26.87, 51.34, and 18.83 mg g −1 for BL4, BL5, and BL6, respectively. The underlying mechanism for adsorption of MB using BL5, is characterized by non‐ionic lactone ring opening in presence of MB under alkaline conditions that is supported by X‐ray photoelectron spectroscopy(XPS) and Fourier transformed infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) studies. Desorption of MB and regeneration from BL5 is studied with methanol and 0.1 m HCl as stripping solvent for four cycles. Recovery of MB is better with methanol in comparison to 0.1 m HCl.