Fabricating a pistachio nut shells activated carbon + CNTs @ Chitosan (PAC-CNTs @Cs) composite for pesticides attenuation from agricultural wastewater

Agriculture is the largest consumer of water resources in Egypt. Pesticides are a major contaminant of agricultural wastewater. Chemical pesticides must be eliminated from wastewater because they accumulate in the soil and water sources. They can be absorbed by specific crops, resulting in a significant impact on human health because they are toxic and carcinogenic. Adsorption technology has been used widely for wastewater treatment due to its effectiveness and low cost. In this study, both microporous activated carbon (PAC) and composite (PAC-CNTs @Cs) were made from pistachio nutshell as agricultural waste and used to remove pesticides from agricultural wastewater. The XRD, TGA, BET, SEM, EDAX and FT-IR techniques were used to characterize the (PAC-CNTs @Cs) composite. The results demonstrate that the maximal PAC removal percentages in synthetic and real samples are 90 % and 64 %, respectively. While the PAC-CNTs @Cs removal percentage reached 98 % and 78 % in synthetic and real samples, respectively. Otherwise, the minimum PAC removal percentages in synthetic and real samples are 62 % and 57 %, respectively. While PAC-CNTs @Cs had minimum removal percentage of 77 % and 75 % for synthetic and real samples, respectively. The conclusion reached was that PAC-CNTs @Cs had a higher adsorption capacity than PAC.