Tamarind Seed Modified by CuFe Layered for Caffeine Removal from Aqueous Solution

Caffeine is considered as one of the emerging contaminants (ECs) and has been utilized extensively in beverages industry. This contaminant finds its ways to enter water bodies and causing severe effects on humans and aquatic organisms. Therefore, this study explored the potential of tamarind seed (TS) as activated carbon (TSAC) in adsorbing caffeine from an aqueous solution. TS was carbonized using a conventional furnace, layered with CuFe salts at different impregnation ratio (IR) and lastly, heated with a microwave oven. The concentration of caffeine was measured using UV-Vis spectrophotometer at a maximum wavelength of 274 nm. Characterization analysis showed that TSAC posed BET surface area and average pore diameter of 498.53 m2/g and 2.19 nm, respectively. When IR increased from 0.5 to 1.5 g/g, adsorption uptakes and caffeine removal increased from 56.19 to 65.48 mg/g, and from 60.86 to 69.84%, respectively. The isotherm study revealed that caffeine-TSAC adsorption system was best described by Freundlich isotherm due to high R2 value of 0.9991 and low average error of 7.39%. The maximum adsorption capacity, Qm obtained from Langmuir isotherm was found to be 214.25 mg/g.