Under the supervision of the deanery office of College of Pharmacy at UoD, a seminar has been presented by Assist prof. Dr. Nidhal Meena Sher Mohammed entitled: "Nitrogen-rich, potato peel-derived hydrochar as an effective dye adsorbent", has been conducted in the COP building on Wednesday, 22/ 5/ 2024

The work investigated N-doping hydrochar through hydrothermal treatment of potato peel (PPH) followed by pyrolysis under N2 gas with urea as a nitrogen source at 600 °C for 2 and 3 hours to prepare N-doped pyrochars (N-PPH.2Hrs and N-PPH.3Hrs). The characterizations of the produced pyrochars using BET, SEM, EDS, XRD, and FTIR techniques, coupled with their performance in adsorbing Congo red dye, yielded compelling insights. It was evident that the N-doped pyrochar resulting from 3 hrs pyrolysis exhibited superior adsorption capacity compared to its 2 hrs counterpart and initial hydrochar (PPH). Notably, the study indicated temperature and initial dye concentration as influencing factors on adsorption capacity, and the process follows the Freundlich isotherm and pseudo second-order kinetics models. The findings highlighted the potential of waste-derived pyrochars as cost-effective alternatives for water purification.