Chapter 3 - Mesoporous Carbon-Based Composites for Adsorption of Heavy Metals

Abstract

Mesoporous carbon materials, which possess high surface area, large pore volume and special physicochemical properties, have caused considerable attention in various fields. These features of mesoporous carbon not only provide huge interface and large space to accommodate capacious guest species, but also enable the specific binding, enrichment and separation, meeting the requirements of excellent adsorbents. In this chapter, using the different types of functionalized mesoporous carbon materials as the clue (such as amino-, sulfur-, nitrogen-, organic-functionalized mesoporous carbon, magnetic mesoporous carbon and multi-functionalized magnetic mesoporous carbon), their applications in heavy metals removal are discussed in detail. The preparation of different mesoporous carbons, their physicochemical properties (compositions, structures, functions, and characteristics), adsorption characteristics and mechanism, as well as the effects of various parameters will be analyzed and summarized. The future perspectives of mesoporous carbon based composites in heavy metals removal will also be concluded.