Spherical SBA-16 particles synthesized from rice husk ash and corn cob ash for efficient organic dye adsorbent

The innovative and proper treatment of agricultural wastes is important to preventing environmental and health problems. In the present study, rice husk ash and corn cob ash-derived mesoporous Santa Barbara Amorphous 16 (SBA-16) with spherical morphology were successfully produced by simply controlling the contents of pluronic P123. The synthesized samples were studied using FTIR, XRD, TEM, Brunauer–Emmett–Teller, and UV visible spectroscopy. The experimental results indicated that corn cob ash with 15 g P123 content produced the highest yield of spherical SBA-16 particles with a well-ordered pore of tunnels, resulting in a higher crystallinity, where the pore adsorption volume and pore diameter were found to be 0.30 cm3/g, and 6.2 nm, respectively. In comparison with the rice husk ash sample, the methylene blue (MB) adsorption results showed that 15 g P123 containing corn cob ash exhibited a higher pollutant uptake, with 38.5 mg g⁻¹ uptake capacity and 77.1% MB dye removal at 3 h of contact time. The present investigation demonstrated that mesoporous SBA-16 extracted from corn cob ash-derived SBA-16 has potential as an adsorbent for applications in industry.