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Study on the formation mechanism of hydrothermal prefabricated activated carbon and its adsorption capacity for malachite green

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Abstract

The activated carbon (AC) adsorbents were prepared by KOH activation of hydrothermally pretreated pine sawdust (PS). The physicochemical properties of AC were characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Fourier transform infrared spectrometer (FT-IR), and N2 adsorption–desorption techniques. The malachite green (MG) removal performance of the prepared AC was evaluated under various MG concentrations, pH, and MG/AC ratios. The porous AC shows a fully developed structure with a specific surface area (SSA) of 1900 m2/g and a total pore volume (Vtotal pore) of 1.051 cm3/g. MG could be efficiently removed from aqueous solutions by the prepared AC with rich pores and surface functional groups. MG adsorption capacity of 2209.07 mg/g was observed at the initial MG concentration of 500 mg/L. The MG adsorption mechanism by the prepared AC was explored through the adsorption kinetics, isotherms, and thermodynamics models. The adsorption results could be well illustrated by the pseudo-second-order kinetic model with a R2 of 0.9990 and Langmuir isothermal model with a R2 of 0.9830 indicating the chemisorption dominated in the homogeneous and monolayer adsorption. The diffusion of MG into AC is mainly controlled by the intraparticle diffusion. ΔG0 < 0 demonstrated the spontaneous nature of MG adsorption onto AC, and ΔH0 > 0 implied the endothermic nature of the adsorption process. This is the reason that the adsorption capacity was improved from 2464.10 to 2623.77 mg/g as the temperature was increased from 298 to 318 K at the same MG initial concentration. This work could provide some references to produce efficient adsorbents from biomass.

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Funding

This work was supported by the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (Grant 2020QN07), the Assistance Program for Future Outstanding Talents of China University of Mining and Technology (2022WLJCRCZL204), and the Postgraduate Research and Practice Innovation Program of Jiangsu Province (KYCX22_2530).

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  1. Xin Cui and Didi Gai contribute equally to this work.

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  1. School of Low-Carbon Energy and Power Engineering, China University of Mining and Technology, Jiangsu, Xuzhou, 221116, People’s Republic of China

    Xin Cui, Didi Gai, Baian Zhu, Tong Wu, Jing Zhang & Peitao Zhao

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Cui, X., Gai, D., Zhu, B. et al. Study on the formation mechanism of hydrothermal prefabricated activated carbon and its adsorption capacity for malachite green. Colloid Polym Sci 300, 973–988 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00396-022-05004-x

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