Agricultural waste materials (strawberry seeds and pistachio shells) were used for preparation of activated carbons by two various methods. Chemical activation using acetic acid and physical activation with gaseous agents (carbon dioxide and water vapor) were chosen as mild and environmentally friendly methods. The effect of type of raw material, temperature, and activation agent on the porous structure characteristics of the materials was discussed applying various methods of analysis. The best obtained activated carbons were characterized by high values of specific surface area (555–685 m²/g). The Guinier analysis of small-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS) curves showed that a time of activation affects pore size. The samples activated using carbon dioxide were characterized mostly by the spherical morphology of pores. Adsorbents were utilized for removal of the model organic pollutants from the single- and multicomponent systems. The adsorption capacities for the 4-chloro-2-methyphenoxyacetic acid (MCPA) removal were equal to 1.43–1.56 mmol/g; however, for adsorbent from strawberry seeds it was much lower. Slight effect of crystal violet presence on the MCPA adsorption and inversely was noticed as a result of adsorption in different types of pores. For similar herbicides strong competition in capacity and adsorption rate was observed. For analysis of kinetic data various equations were used.

The adsorption of MCPA and 2,4-D on the activated carbon Filtrasorb 300 was studied. The adsorption isotherms of herbicides from aqueous solutions were measured over a wide range of solute concentrations and at different temperatures. The experimental equilibrium data were analyzed by the Langmuir–Freundlich isotherm taking into account the energetic heterogeneity of adsorption system. The effect of temperature and herbicide properties on its uptake was discussed. The thermal analysis was applied in order to find the differences in herbicide interactions with carbon surface. The kinetic dependences were measured and the relations between solute properties and adsorption rate were discussed.

The temperature influence on equilibrium and kinetics of adsorption of 4-chlorophenoxyacetic and 3-bromophenoxypropionic acids from aqueous solutions on the Norit activated carbon was studied. The correlations between temperature and parameters characterizing adsorption process were found. Increase of rate of adsorption kinetics of phenoxy pesticides with temperature was observed. The rates of adsorption were best described and fitted by multi-exponential equation; simple approximate solution was obtained by using MOE equation (contribution of second order kinetics was always below 80 %). Intermediate quality of description and good correlation with temperature changes was attained for fractal-like MOE kinetics. Slightly worse results were obtained for rate coefficients estimated by MOE fitting. Model-independent adsorption half-times are proposed as the best single descriptor of the experimental kinetic data. Its temperature dependence is strongly correlated with rate coefficients.