A low-cost adsorbent for the recovery of methyl red, methylene blue and phenolphthalein was investigated using UV detection. Result of the adsorption on activated palm kernel shell carbon indicates a high percentage recovery of methyl red in a 0.1 M acid media with a range of 89.7–97.9 % at a particle size of 10 microns, 90.3-97.74% at a particle size of 20 microns and 89–97.28% at a particle size of 40 microns. At an acidic media of 0.2 M, methyl red had a percentage recovery range of 40–95.6%. For phenolphthalein at 0.1 M acid media, the percentage recovery ranged from 64.25–94.2% while at 0.2 M acid media, the percentage recovery ranged from 50 – 90.1%. The results of this study showed that activated palm kernel shell carbon could be conveniently used for an elevated preferentially percentage recovery of methyl red and phenolphthalein in aqueous media.
Okorie et al. (2026) studied this question.