• The study investigates the adsorption of phenol, a harmful environmental contaminant, from aqueous solutions using commercial activated carbon. Phenol concentration in drinking water should not exceed 0.002 mg/L as per Indian standards.
• Batch adsorption experiments were conducted to analyze the effect of adsorbent dosage, pH, contact time, initial phenol concentration, solution volume, and agitation speed on phenol removal efficiency.
• Kinetic models (pseudo-first-order, pseudo-second-order, and Weber-Morris) and isotherm models (Langmuir, Freundlich, Temkin, Toth, Redlich-Peterson, and Radke-Prausnitz) were applied to study adsorption behavior.
• The optimal conditions achieved 82% phenol removal, with data best fitting the Langmuir isotherm and pseudo-second-order kinetics, indicating chemisorption as the dominant adsorption mechanism.