Journal of Encapsulation and Adsorption Sciences, 2018, 8, 39-57 http://www.scirp.org/journal/jeas ISSN Online: 2161-4873 ISSN Print: 2161-4865 Adsorption Kinetics and Thermodynamics Study of Butylparaben on Activated Carbon Coconut Based Patrick Atheba 1,2 , N’Guadi Blaise Allou 3* , Patrick Drogui 1 , Albert Trokourey 2 1 Institut National de la Recherche Scientifique (INRS-ETE), Université du Québec, Quebec City, Canada 2 Laboratoire de Chimie Physique, Université Félix Houphouët Boigny de Cocody-Abidjan, Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire 3 Advanced Materials Group, Materials Science and Technology Division, CSIR-NEIST, Jorhat, India Abstract In this work, low cost coconut biochar based activated carbon (CBAC) was used for adsorption of Butylparaben (BPB) from aqueous medium. The pre- pared CBAC was characterized using BET, Boehm analysis and the adsorption equilibrium, kinetics and thermodynamics studies of BPB adsorption were carried out. During batch adsorption runs, the effects of factors, such as con- tact time (0 - 300 min), CBAC dose (200 - 800 mg), pH (3 - 11) and solution temperatures (303 - 348 K) were investigated on BPB removal. Experimental results reveal that the BPB removal efficiency on CBAC is higher than 97% under acidic and neutral conditions. Equilibrium data were fitted by Lang- muir, Freundlich and Temkin isotherm models with correlation coefficient more than 0.9. The pseudo-second order kinetic model was observed to fit well the adsorption data. Thermodynamic analysis shows positive values of standard Gibb’s free energy, suggesting the non-spontaneity of the process. The changes in enthalpy (0.2 J·mol −1 ) and entropy (19 J·mol −1 ) were found to be endothermic with an increase of randomness. The high adsorption effi- ciency of the synthesized coconut biochar materials with low cost indicates that it may be a promising adsorbent for removing organic compounds. Keywords Coconut Shell, Activated Carbon, Adsorption, Butylparaben, Kinetics, Isotherm 1. Introduction During these last 20 years, concerns about the consequences of human and wild- How to cite this paper: Atheba, P., Allou, N.B., Drogui, P. and Trokourey, A. (2018) Adsorption Kinetics and Thermodynamics Study of Butylparaben on Activated Carbon Coconut Based. Journal of Encapsulation and Adsorption Sciences, 8, 39-57. https://doi.org/10.4236/jeas.2018.82003 Received: February 6, 2018 Accepted: May 28, 2018 Published: May 31, 2018 Copyright © 2018 by authors and Scientific Research Publishing Inc. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution International License (CC BY 4.0). http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Open Access DOI: 10.4236/jeas.2018.82003 May 31, 2018 39 Journal of Encapsulation and Adsorption Sciences