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Vol. 38 No. 10 (2026): Vol 38, Issue 10, 2026

Copyright (c) 2026 Latonglila Jamir, Ketiyala Ao, Tsenbeni N Lotha, Vevosa Nakro, Lemzila Rudithongru

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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Experimental and Computational Studies of Buffalo Horn-derived Activated Carbon for the Adsorption of Crystal Violet Dye

https://doi.org/10.14233/ajchem.2026.36444
Ketiyala Ao
Department of Environmental Science, Nagaland University, Lumami-798627, India
https://orcid.org/0009-0001-2330-2963
Tsenbeni N Lotha
Department of Environmental Science, Nagaland University, Lumami-798627, India
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5337-7851
Vevosa Nakro
Department of Environmental Science, Nagaland University, Lumami-798627, India
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0487-0148
Lemzila Rudithongru
Department of Environmental Science, Nagaland University, Lumami-798627, India
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3983-9279
Latonglila Jamir
Department of Environmental Science, Nagaland University, Lumami-798627, India
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4039-9426

Corresponding Author(s) : Latonglila Jamir

latongli.jamir@gmail.com

Asian Journal of Chemistry, Vol. 38 No. 10 (2026): Vol 38, Issue 10, 2026

Abstract

This study reports the utilization of abundantly discarded animal biomass specifically buffalo horn as a sustainable, low-cost precursor for producing functionalized activated carbon (BHAC) for the removal of crystal violet (CV) dye from textile wastewater. Comprehensive structural and morphological characterization (including SEM, TEM, XRD, XPS, BET) revealed that the KOH-mediated chemical activation successfully introduced heterogeneous pore structures and an iodine number of 213.73 m2 g–1. Batch adsorption optimization studies involving adsorbent dose, pH, initial concentration, contact time and temperature achieved an impressive 95.72% removal efficiency of CV at pH 8 with equilibrium data fitting well to the Freundlich multilayer isotherm model (R2 = 0.992) and pseudo-second-order kinetics (R2 = 0.999). Thermodynamic parameters including Gibbs free energy change (ΔGº), change in enthalpy (ΔHº) and entropy (ΔSº) confirmed that the adsorption process is spontaneous and exothermic, while regeneration study demonstrated stable reusability over six successive cycles. Furthermore, density functional theory (DFT) simulations fundamentally validated the adsorption energetics confirming that surface carboxyl groups (-COOH) serve as the primary chemical binding sites driving favourable electrostatic interactions with the cationic adsorbate.

Keywords

Buffalo horn Activated carbon Cationic dye Adsorption Thermodynamics DFT
(1)
Ao, K.; Lotha, T. N.; Nakro, V.; Rudithongru, L.; Jamir, L. Experimental and Computational Studies of Buffalo Horn-Derived Activated Carbon for the Adsorption of Crystal Violet Dye. ajc 2026, 38, 2586-2600.
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