Tuo-Ping Hu

Effective adsorption of phenols using nitrogen-containing porous activated carbon prepared from sunflower plates

Nitrogen-containing porous carbons, the 800SP-NH3, were synthesized using sunflower plates as the major carbon source carbonized at 800°C and activated with concentrated aqueous ammonia at the same temperature. The porous carbons were characterized by nitrogen physical adsorption-desorption, surface area analyzer, FT-IR, and SEM. The adsorption properties of the porous carbons towards phenols were also investigated by batch methods. The test results show that the average pore diameter of porous carbon is smaller than 2 nm, and nitrogen-containing chemical groups are formed on its surface. The adsorption capacity for phenol, 4-chlorophenol, and p-nitrophenol is 316.5mg/g, 330.24mg/g and 387.62mg/g due to its developed pore structure and nitrogen-containing chemical groups. The adsorption isotherm data greatly obey the Langmuir model.

Effective removal of anilines using porous activated carbon based on ureaformaldehyde resin

The effective removal of aniline and its derivatives from wastewater is very important due to the high toxicity. Adsorption with a high-performance adsorbent is an efficient pathway. A novel activated carbon, ACUF-700, was synthesized using homemade ureaformaldehyde resin as the major carbon source carbonized at 700 °C. ACUF-700 is characterized by surface area analyzer, FTIR, elemental analyzer, and SEM. The adsorption properties of ACUF-700 towards anilines are also investigated by using batch methods. The test results showed that the ACUF-700 possesses higher specific surface area and narrower pore size distribution. In virtue of its developed pore structure and nitrogencontaining chemical groups, the adsorption capacities towards aniline, p-toluidine and p-chloroaniline could reach 95.6, 108.1 and 128.9mg/g, respectively. The adsorption process could be well described by the intra-particle mass transfer diffusion model and Sips model. Besides, ACUF700 was regenerated easily using diluted hydrochloric acid solution as eluent and ACUF700 possesses better reusability.