Accepted:15 Mac 2014 Graphical abstract

The present study was aimed to characterize the adsorptive properties of waste tyre powder based activated carbons for decolourization of reactive orange 16 (RO16). Waste tyre powder was activated through irradiated water environment (MAC). Comparison was made by conventional chemical activation using calcium chloride (CAC) and recovered calcium chloride from the first activation (RAC). Activated carbons were characterized according to surface area, morphology and functional groups. The values of surface area were recorded as 95.9, 111, 80.9m2/g for MAC, CAC and RAC, respectively. The decolourization of RO16 was observed to have the following order: MAC>CAC>RAC. Adsorption data for all activated carbons studied obeyed Langmuir isotherm for which the process could be described as monolayer adsorption. The kinetics data were well-fitted to pseudo-second-order model, suggesting the chemisorption process