Abstract
It is of great interest and importance to resource utilization of waste biomass to produce porous carbon for environmental treatments. Pore structure and properties of the obtained carbon mainly relate to carbonization conditions and biomass types. In this work, a series of porous, biomass-activated carbons (AC) were prepared using shaddock peel, with ZnCl2 as a pore-forming agent. The effect of carbonization temperature and the mass ratio between ZnCl2 and shaddock peel were thoroughly investigated. The material composition, surface chemical properties, and surface structures of samples were carefully characterized. The specific surface area and adsorption capacity to methylene blue (MB) of adsorbents were changed with the carbonization temperature and the mass ratios between ZnCl2 and shaddock peel; when the temperature was at 1000 °C and the mass ratio was equal to 2:1, the resulting adsorbent had the largest specific surface area of 2398.74 m2/g and average pore size of 3.04 nm, which showed the highest adsorption capacity to MB to be 869.57 mg/g. The adsorption processes of biomass AC adsorbent matched the pseudo-second-order kinetic model and Langmuir isotherm model. This efficient and environmentally friendly biomass AC adsorbent from shaddock peel, activated by ZnCl2, is a promising candidate for the treatment of water pollution.
Highlights
Organic dyes have greatly enriched human life, with widespread applications in textile, papermaking, leather [1], and printing industries [2]
Specific surface area and pore properties were calculated based on low-temperature N2 adsorption–desorption isothermal curves, recorded at 77 K on Micromeritics ASAP 2460 (Norcross, GA, USA), where the specific surface area was evaluated by the Brunauer–Emmett–Teller (BET) method from the adsorption curve, and both the pore size distribution and the pore volume were analyzed using the density functional theory (DFT) method
This result was in line with the largest specific surface area Materials 2022a,n15d, 89a5ppropriate pore size of the 2:1-1000 activated carbon (AC) adsorbent’s honeycomb hierarchic11aolf p16orous morphology, which is beneficial for the adsorption behavior toward methylene blue (MB)
Summary
Organic dyes have greatly enriched human life, with widespread applications in textile, papermaking, leather [1], and printing industries [2]. ZnCl2 is a potential activating agent to improve the specific surface area and porosity of carbon materials. It is of great necessity and importance to investigate the influence of ZnCl2 in the carbonization of shaddock. The obtained AC adsorbents with high specific surface area and porous structure were applied for the removal of MB in aqueous solution, and the kinetic and isotherm adsorptions were carefully investigated. The use of shaddock peel as a carbon precursor, and of ZnCl2 as an activating agent, is a low-cost and environmentally friendly method for practical applications of sewage treatment
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