Comparison of Activated Carbon and Physic Seed Hull for the Removal of Malachite Green Dye from Aqueous Solution Masita Mohammad & Saikat Maitra & Binay Kanti Dutta Received: 5 September 2017 /Accepted: 10 January 2018 # Springer International Publishing AG, part of Springer Nature 2018 Abstract In the present work, the effectiveness of phys- ic seed hull, PSH (Jatropha curcas L.), as an alternative low-cost adsorbent for the removal of malachite green (MG) dye from simulated wastewater has been studied. It has been observed that PSH has remarkable adsorp- tion capacity compared to granular activated carbon. The PSH adsorbent was characterized by SEM-EDX, BET, CHNS, zeta potential, and FTIR techniques. The adsorption behaviors such as adsorption kinetics, ad- sorption dynamics, and adsorption isotherms of PSH for the removal of MG dye from aqueous solution were studied in detail. The kinetic data fitted well with the pseudo second-order kinetic model for MG adsorption. Langmuir isotherm was found to be the model best fitted to describe the adsorption process. Keywords Physic seed hull . Activated carbon . Granular materials . Malachite green . Adsorption . Kinetic . Isothermal 1 Introduction The estimated numbers of different commercial dyes and pigments are around 10,000 at present and their annual productions are over 7 × 10 5 tons globally (Garg et al. 2004). Dyes are extensively used in production of textile, rubber, paper, plastic, cosmetic, etc. (Garg et al. 2003). Synthetic dyes are common water pollutants and often can be found as a trace constituent in industrial wastewa- ter due to their high solubility in water. However, it imparts toxicity to the aquatic life and damages the environment with severe problems which emerge from the discharge of dye-bearing wastewater into natural streams and rivers. It is very difficult to treat wastewater containing dyes since the dyes are resistant to aerobic digestion and are stable to light, heat, and oxidizing agents (Sun and Yang 2003; Ravi Kumar et al. 1998). Malachite green, also known as aniline green, basic green 4, diamond green B, or Victoria green B [IUPAC name, -[(4-dimethylaminophenyl)-phenyl-methyl]-N,N- dimethyl-aniline], is a toxic substance. It is frequently used as a dye in industry; used in fish as a topical antiseptic or to treat parasites and fungal, protozoan, and bacterial infections and some other diseases caused by helminths on a wide variety of fish and other aquatic organisms; and as a bacteriological stain. Their contam- ination in water bodies would harm both animals and human beings due to its carcinogenic and mutagenic effects. The concentration of as low as 0.1 would result in a chromosome division also known as a cytostatic syndrome in experimental fish. The Committee on the Food and Animal Health of the European Commission Water Air Soil Pollut (2018) 229:45 https://doi.org/10.1007/s11270-018-3686-4 M. Mohammad (*) Solar Energy Research Institute (SERI), Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, 43600 Bangi, Selangor, Malaysia e-mail: masita@ukm.edu.my S. Maitra Government College of Engineering & Ceramic Technology, 73 Abinash Chandra Banerjee Lane, Kolkata 700010, India e-mail: maitrasaikat@rediffmail.com B. K. Dutta National Institute of Technology Rourkela, Rourkela, Odisha 769008, India e-mail: binaykdutta@gmail.com