Manufacture of activated carbons using Egyptian wood resources and its application in oligothiophene dye adsorption

Solid shrimp waste derived nanoporous carbon as an alternative bio-sorbent for oxytetracycline removal from aquaculture wastewater

Recently, it has been critical to effectively remove oxytetracycline (OTC) from aquaculture wastewater before releasing into the environment. The adsorption process is recognized as an efficient pathway for removing OTC since it is a simple, stable, and cost-effective method. This study aims to develop nanoporous carbon entirely from shrimp waste (SW) via hydrothermal carbonization assisted with KOH activation. Existing KOH significantly increases the porosity of SW nanoporous carbon. The optimal SW porous carbon was obtained using 5 wt%KOH for activation, which had the largest surface area of 679.51 m2/g with the total pore volume of 0.458 cm3/g. Moreover, the SW porous carbon with the highest porosity was selected for the OTC adsorption. The Langmuir isotherm model and the pseudo-second-order kinetic model match the experimental data, implying that the adsorption mechanism is mono-layered adsorption due to micropores by chemisorption interaction. The adsorption capacity significantly improved by increasing the dosage of SW nanoporous carbon. The SW nanoporous carbon adsorption for OTC is primarily regulated by pore filling affected by hydrogen bonding, and π-π* interaction also plays a significant role. The SW nanoporous carbon showed an efficient OTC adsorption after 5 regeneration cycles. This work demonstrates biomass waste recycling and emphasizes the potential of aquatic food processing waste-derived nanoporous carbon for antibiotic adsorption.

Fabrication of a Nanoporous Silica Hydrogel by Cross-Linking of SiO2-H3BO3-Hexadecyltrimethoxysilane for Excellent Adsorption of Azo Dyes from Wastewater

This study reports a novel cross-linking approach to fabricate the hydrothermally neutralized silica hydrogel of SiO₂-H₃BO₃-hexadecyltrimethoxysilane by grafting alkylsilane groups onto the nanoporous silica. The synthesized silica hydrogel possessed a large specific surface area of 51.3 m²g^-1 and showed excellent dye adsorption capability of cationic dyes in neutral (pH 7) and alkaline (pH 9) medium from wastewater. The colloidal electrokinetic potential analysis revealed that the outstanding adsorption efficiency of cationic dyes over anionic dyes strongly relies on the surface charge of the hydrogels. Moreover, the hydrophobic interactions between the dye molecules and the hydrogels were studied, and it was found that the dye adsorption performance can be tuned by altering the concentration of hydrophobic reagents of the hydrogel. The dye adsorption mechanism was established, and the kinetic study suggested that the adsorption is a pseudo-second-order reaction. Adsorption isotherms at various equilibrium conditions fitted well with the Langmuir isotherm. Therefore, this strongly supports the promising and practical application of the prepared silica hydrogel. The recyclability of the hydrogel was studied, and it showed 90% adsorption efficiency by the regenerated gel up to 6 cycles, which has a high potential in wastewater treatment.

CO2 Capture by Low-Cost Date Pits-Based Activated Carbon and Silica Gel

The rising levels of CO2 in the atmosphere are causing escalating average global temperatures. The capture of CO2 by adsorption has been carried out using silica gel type III and prepared activated carbon. The date pits-based activated carbon was synthesized using a tubular furnace by physical activation. The temperature of the sample was increased at 10 °C/min and the biomass was carbonized under N2 flow maintained continuously for 2 h at 600 °C. The activation was performed with the CO2 flow maintained constantly for 2 h at 600 °C. The temperature, feed flow and adsorbate volume were the parameters considered for CO2 adsorption. The success of CO2 capture was analyzed by CO2 uptake, efficiency based on column capacity, utilization factors and the mass transfer zone. The massively steep profiles of the breakthrough response of the AC demonstrate the satisfactory exploitation of CO2 uptake under the conditions of the breakthrough. The SG contributed to a maximal CO2 uptake of 8.61 mg/g at 298 K and Co = 5% with F = 5 lpm. The enhanced CO2 uptake of 73.1 mg/g was achieved with a column efficiency of 0.94 for the activated carbon produced from date pits at 298 K. The AC demonstrated an improved performance with a decreased mass transfer zone of 1.20 cm with an enhanced utilization factor f = 0.97 at 298 K. This finding suggests that a date pits-based activated carbon is suitable for CO2 separation by adsorption from the feed mixture.

Highly Effective Methods of Obtaining N-Doped Graphene by Gamma Irradiation

The design and fabrication of a new effective manufacturing method of heteroatom-doped carbon materials is still ongoing. In this paper, we present alternative and facile methods to obtain N-rich graphene with the use of low energy gamma radiation. This method was used as a pure and facile method for altering the physical and chemical properties of graphene. The obtained materials have an exceptionally high N content-up to 4 wt %. (dry method) and up to 2 wt %. (wet method). High-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), Raman spectra and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) studies allowed us to evaluate the quality of the obtained materials. The presented results will provide new insights in designing and optimizing N-doped carbon materials potentially for the development of anode or cathode materials for electrochemical device applications, especially supercapacitors, metal-air batteries and fuel cells. Nitrogen atoms are exclusively bonded as quaternary groups. The method is expandable to the chemical insertion of other heteroatoms to graphene, especially such as sulfur, boron or phosphorus.

TV, Huamani-Palomino RG, Baena-Moncada AM. Simultaneous adsorption of a ternary mixture of brilliant green, rhodamine B and methyl orange as artificial wastewater onto biochar from cocoa pod husk waste. Quantification of dyes using the derivative spectrophotometry method

Biochar obtained from cocoa pod husk waste for the simultaneous adsorption of a ternary mixture of brilliant green, rhodamine B and methyl orange.