Activated carbon as potential material for heavy metals removal from wastewater

Heavy metal pollution and its control are one of the global emerging issues of the recent decades. The removal of heavy metals from wastewater is of special concern as those are non-degradable and possess detrimental threat to public health even at ppb level. Adsorption can be an effective solution for wastewater treatment and industries can practice for sequestration of metal ions from effluents. Among the different adsorbent materials, activated carbons are preferred adsorbent for the removal of toxic metals from aqueous phase. Activated carbon is highly porous carbonaceous substances which can easily be synthesized from different agricultural waste as well as from industrial and municipal waste having relatively high carbon content. Activated carbon has already been prepared from different source materials using either physical or chemical activation method and studied its efficacy for different metals removal. This chapter reviews recent scientific advancement of activated carbon's application in heavy metals removal form water. Different synthesis methods for preparing activated carbon are also tabulated for easy reference. Further, the existing literatures to understand the overall sorption behavior of heavy metals on activated carbon are also incorporated.