Sustainable Approach for Developing High-Performance Activated Carbon from Agricultural Wastes: Exploring the Impact of Carbonization Parameters and Activating Agents for Enhanced Physiochemical Properties

Activated carbon, with its notable porosity and large surface area, holds significant promise for various applications. However, the limited exploration of diverse biomass precursors and the insufficient correlation between pore distribution and performance present several challenges. This study addresses these issues by synthesizing activated carbon from banana peel (BP), potato peel (PP), and tea residue (TR) biomass, by optimizing parameters such as temperature (350–900°C), time (30–480 min), pH (1–12), dosage (1–10 g), and particle size (> 0.841 − 0.105 mm). The findings revealed that banana peel-derived activated carbon achieved the highest carbonization yield of 69.867% under optimal conditions (temperature = 350°C, time = 30 min, pH = 1, dosage = 3 g, and particle size > 0.841 mm). Significant enhancements in the characteristics of the activated carbon were observed compared to raw biomass. XRD confirmed the existence of graphitic carbon with (002), (100), and (004) planes, which was further supported by the Raman spectroscopy showing D and G bands near 1320 cm ^− 1 and 1568 cm ^− 1 . Morphological analysis revealed that maximum surface area (49.374 m²g ^− 1 ) was achieved for banana peel-derived activated carbon compared to those derived from potato peel (40.218 m²g ^− 1 ) and tea residue (45.355 m²g ^− 1 ). Furthermore, the synthesized activated carbon exhibited superior thermal stability compared to the raw biomass, with minimal weight loss of ~ 17–19% across the temperature 20–900°C. This research highlights the significant contribution towards waste management and resource utilization while supporting the development of green technologies for activated carbon synthesis.