Abstract
Carbon, tried and tested adsorbent of the industrial age still dominates the process industries for purification and benefaction of mass-based separation. In this manuscript, the feasibility of utilizing the steel industries by-product coal tar sludge (CTS) for carbon products was studied. CTS, a hazardous waste, due to its carcinogenicity was largely un-regarded as carbon precursor due to the presence of polyaromatic hydrocarbons. The sludge is pre-processed with organic solvent followed by membrane separation aided by vacuum to extract the pristine carbon which is then treated thermally with an oxidizing agent in an inert atmosphere. The yielded activated carbon (AC) is surface characterized for the structural evaluation of the pore networks within. The surface area of the synthesized ACs lies within the range between 1600 and 1800 m2/gm and the values are compared with the commercially available ACs and ACs synthesized from other carbon precursors. Further, the utilization of the synthesized ACs towards dye removal has also been explored.
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Acknowledgements
The authors gratefully acknowledge Tata Steel, Jamshedpur, for providing coal tar sludge and necessary instruments for performing experimental works. We are thankful to Mr. Dhrubajyoti Sadhukhan for his suggestion during conducting the experiments.
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NK has conducted the experiments, analysed and interpreted the results and wrote the manuscript. HP has conducted experiments and reviewed the manuscript. PPB and NKA provided the concept behind the work, have analysed and interpreted the results and reviewed and edited the manuscript. PB and SS have validated the experimental data.
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Kundu, N., Prasath, H., Biswas, P. et al. Synthesis of coal tar sludge-based activated carbon: insights into thermal rate, surface complexes and pore development. Int. J. Environ. Sci. Technol. 20, 9853–9864 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13762-022-04633-7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13762-022-04633-7