The NaOH-HCl- and ethanol-pretreated pomelo peel samples were prepared to apply to the batch adsorption for epigallocatechin-3-gallate (EGCG). The characteristics of peel samples were determined by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy and a laser particle analyzer. The results of the physiochemical properties of the peel samples demonstrate that these peel samples have a promising adsorption capacity for EGCG, because of the increased potential binding sites on the surface compared with those of untreated peel samples. These two peel samples showed enhanced adsorption capacities of EGCG compared with that of unmodified peel in terms of the isothermal adsorption process, which could be described by both Langmuir and Freundlich models, with the theoretical maximum adsorption capacity of 77.52 and 94.34 mg g-1 for the NaOH-HCl and ethanol-treated peel samples, respectively. The adsorption kinetics demonstrated an excellent fitness to pseudo-second-order, showing that chemisorption was the rate-limiting step. The thermodynamics analysis revealed that the adsorption reaction was a spontaneous and endothermic process. This work highlights that the processed pomelo peels have outstanding adsorption capacities for EGCG, which could be promising candidates for EGCG delivering in functional food application.
Keywords: EGCG; isothermal adsorption; physiochemical characteristics; processed pomelo peel; thermodynamics.