Influence of impregnation ratio on physicochemistry of patchouli Biochar using CoCl₂ chemical activator for adsorption of drug pollutants

Biochar is one of potensial adsorbent due to its physichocemistry, including porosity and surface functional group. Both are influenced by parameters of preparation, including amount of activator. In this research how far the activatpr amount toward porosity and surface functional groups of biochar were studied. Pyrolisis of biochar were conducted using CoCl2 activator (as CoCl2.6H2O) at various impregnation ratio of 1.7 to 8.7, temperature of 450 oC under nitrogen gas streaming. Characterization of biochar using FTIR spectrophotometry indicated the increasing polarity of the biochar surface by improving the ratio mass, as showen by sharpness change of -OH and C=O bands. Based on characterization of the biochar using nitrogen gas adsorption method, the highest pore volume (total, mesopore, micropore) was achieved at the ratio of 5.2 Adsorption test of each 200 ppm drugs gave adsorption values of 44.30 ± 3.65 %, 36.77 ± 2.34 %, 70.22 ± 0.02 % for tetracycline, amoxyciline, and paracetamol, respectively.