Effective adsorbent for the removal of bisphenol A from water: MOF-derived carbon

Abstract

In the present work, the metal-organic-framework-derived carbon (MDC-800, 800 refers to the carbonization temperature) was successfully synthesized through the hydrothermal method and subsequent carbonization methods, and the material had good adsorption capacity. MDC-800 was characterized by X-ray diffraction, Raman spectroscopy, N2 adsorption/desorption isotherm, scanning electron microscope (SEM), Brunauer−Emmett−Teller (BET) analysis, and zeta potential. Batch adsorption was performed, and the relevant adsorption behavior was surveyed. The adsorption of bisphenol A (BPA) by MDC-800 reached equilibrium at 6 h, and the maximum adsorption capacity was 493 mg/g. The adsorption of BPA on MDC-800 conformed to pseudo-first-order kinetic and Langmuir isotherm models. Moreover, thermodynamic analysis showed that the adsorption of BPA by MDC-800 had an exothermic behavior. According to BET analysis, MDC-800 has high specific surface area (710 m2/g) and pore volume (4.29 cm3/g). The excellent adsorption performance of MDC-800 for BPA is mainly attributed to the large specific surface area and hydrogen bond. The adsorbent was subjected to recycling test. After five cycles, the adsorption capacity reached 90.78% of the initial adsorption capacity, indicating that MDC-800 has a good reusability. This study proved that MDC-800 has broad prospects in BPA removal.