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Porous material based on modified carbon and the effect of pore size distribution on the adsorption of methylene blue dye from an aqueous solution

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Abstract

Carbon porous materials obtained through KOH activation of a furfural + hydroquinone + urotropine mixture were applied as adsorbent for the remediation of methylene blue (MB). The impact of porous structure with special attention to pore size distribution along with well-known pore volume and specific surface area on the remediation of MB was well investigated and elucidated. Findings obtained revealed that pore size distribution plays a crucial role in the liquid-phase adsorption of organic dyes like MB. By varying the synthesis mode parameters, in particular, the activating agent/precursor mass ratio, with the composition and initial components ratios remaining unchanged, samples with different pore size distribution were obtained. It was found that the material predominantly containing pores with an average equivalent diameter of ~ 3.5 nm appears to be the efficient MB adsorbent. The resulting highly porous carbon materials demonstrated high MB adsorption capacity (up to 2555 mg/g). Furthermore, to fully elucidate the adsorption mechanisms occurring on the obtained materials, a comprehensive mathematical processing of experimental data was performed out using the known kinetic and diffusion models (pseudo-first- and pseudo-second order, and intraparticle diffusion), as well as adsorption equilibrium isotherm models (Langmuir, Freundlich, Temkin, and Dubinin-Radushkevich).

It can be concluded that the porous carbon materials obtained and described in the present work are effective adsorbents for the removal of MB and may possess great potential for the treatment of dye-containing wastewater.

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This published article is included in all data generated or analysed during this study.

Abbreviations

MB:

Methylene blue

PAHs:

Poly aromatic hydrocarbons

CPs:

Chlorophenols

BET:

Brunauer–Emmett–Teller

ACM:

Activated carbon material

DFT:

Density functional theory

PSD:

Pore size distribution

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Funding

The study was supported by project 22–13-20074 of Russian Science Foundation.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Technology and Methods of Nanoproducts Manufacturing, Tambov State Technical University, 106 Sovetskaya St, 392000, Tambov, Russian Federation

    Anastasia Memetova, Elina Mkrtchyan, Irina Burakova, Alexander Burakov, Nariman Memetov & Alena Gerasimova

  2. Centre for DNA Taxonomy, Molecular Systematics Division, Zoological Survey of India, Kolkata, 700053, West Bengal, India

    Inderjeet Tyagi

  3. Department of Chemistry, Gurukul Kangri (Deemed to Be University), Hardwar, 249404, Uttarakhand, India

    Suhas

  4. Department of Chemistry, University of Delhi, New Delhi, 110007, India

    Pratibha Singh

  5. Department of Organic and Ecological Chemistry, University of Tyumen, 6 Volodarskogo St, Tyumen, 625003, Russian Federation

    Gulnara Shigabaeva & Evgeny Galunin

  6. Department of Chemistry, D.B.S. (PG) College, Dehradun, 248001, India

    Ajay Kumar

Authors
  1. Anastasia Memetova
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  2. Inderjeet Tyagi
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  3. Suhas
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  12. Ajay Kumar
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Contributions

Inderjeet Tyagi, Anastasia Memetova: Conceptualization; project administration; and supervision.

Pratibha Singh, Suhas, Joanna Goscianska, Alexander Burakov, Irina Burakova: Data curation; formal analysis; software; visualization.

Elina Mkrtchyan, Nariman Memetov, Alena Gerasimova, Gulnara Shigabaeva, Evgeny Galunin Ajay Kumar: Investigation; methodology, software, validation; visualization.

All authors: Writing, original draft; writing, review and editing.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Inderjeet Tyagi.

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Memetova, A., Tyagi, I., Suhas et al. Porous material based on modified carbon and the effect of pore size distribution on the adsorption of methylene blue dye from an aqueous solution. Environ Sci Pollut Res 30, 22617–22630 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-022-23486-8

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