relation: https://khub.utp.edu.my/scholars/7958/ title: Surfactant modification of banana trunk as low-cost adsorbents and their high benzene adsorptive removal performance from aqueous solution creator: Kong, H. creator: Cheu, S.-C. creator: Othman, N.S. creator: Song, S.-T. creator: Saman, N. creator: Johari, K. creator: Mat, H. description: The banana trunk was modified using cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB), sodium dodecyl sulphate (SDS), poly(ethylene glycol)-block-poly(propylene glycol)-block-poly(ethylene glycol) (Pluronic 123), and 4-(1,1,3,3-tetramethylbutyl)phenyl-polyethylene glycol (Triton X-100) to develop novel low-cost adsorbents for benzene removal from aqueous solution. The surface morphology and functional groups of the synthesized adsorbents were determined by a field emission scanning electron microscope (FESEM) and a Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectrophotometer. The Brunauer, Emmett and Teller (BET) analysis and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) were also conducted to study adsorbent characteristics. The benzene adsorptive performance of the synthesized adsorbents was evaluated in a batch adsorption experiment at various experimental conditions. It was found that the highest benzene adsorption capacity (280.890 � 10-3 mmol g-1) was obtained for M-TX100-BT. The fundamental adsorption studies revealed that the benzene adsorption process was found to be thermodynamically non-spontaneous and all were fitted well by the Langmuir isotherm model. The adsorption kinetic data obeyed the pseudo-second kinetic model with the film diffusion as the rate-limiting step. The application prospects of the Triton X-100 modified banana trunk adsorbent were demonstrated through the regeneration study which revealed that it can also be repeatedly used for at least up to five-adsorption/desorption cycles and its adsorption capacity was comparable to the literature data of similar adsorbents. Thus, banana trunk agrowaste could be an alternative low-cost adsorbent precursor for the adsorptive benzene removal from an aqueous solution. © The Royal Society of Chemistry 2016. publisher: Royal Society of Chemistry date: 2016 type: Article type: PeerReviewed identifier: Kong, H. and Cheu, S.-C. and Othman, N.S. and Song, S.-T. and Saman, N. and Johari, K. and Mat, H. (2016) Surfactant modification of banana trunk as low-cost adsorbents and their high benzene adsorptive removal performance from aqueous solution. RSC Advances, 6 (29). pp. 24738-24751. ISSN 20462069 relation: https://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?eid=2-s2.0-84960157186&doi=10.1039%2fc6ra00911e&partnerID=40&md5=d9176126581272e16a7cf32f31e7a9f1 relation: 10.1039/c6ra00911e identifier: 10.1039/c6ra00911e