Activated Carbon from Rice Husk Biochar with High Surface Area

Abstract

Activated carbons derived from rice husk pyrolysis (biochar) were prepared by chemical activation at different biochar/K2CO3 proportions in order to assess its capacity as adsorbent. The activated material was characterized by X-ray diffraction (DRX), Raman spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), the Brunauer, Emmet, and Teller (BET) method. The Barret, Joyner, and Halenda (BJH) method and functional density theory (DFT), presenting interesting texture properties, such as high surface area (BET 1850 m2 g-1) and microporosity, which allow its use as a sorbent phase in solid-phase extraction (SPE) of the main constituents of the aqueous pyrolysis phase. It was demonstrated that the activated carbon (RH-AC) adsorbs different compounds present in from rice husk pyrolysis wastewater through quantitative analysis by high-performance liquid chromatography with a diode-array detector (HPLC-DAD), presenting good linearity (R2 > 0.996) at 280 nm.