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Sustainable Production of Hierarchically Porous Carbon from Lignin-Acrylic Acid Copolymers

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Abstract

Microporous carbon adsorbents with high surface area and porosity were synthesized from lignin using an acrylic acid pretreatment strategy. Lignin was grafted with acrylic acid via hydrothermal treatment to introduce carboxyl groups, as verified by NMR and FT-IR spectroscopy. The incorporated carboxyls enabled ion exchange reactions between lignin and potassium during subsequent potassium hydroxide (KOH) activation. This optimized the dispersion of potassium, allowing effective activation even at low KOH levels. The effects of process parameters, including acrylic acid content, hydrothermal time, and KOH ratio, were investigated. Optimal conditions of 5 wt% acrylic acid and 6 h hydrothermal reaction produced a carbon adsorbent with exceptional Brunauer–Emmett–Teller (BET) surface area of 1708 m2/g and pore volume of 0.82 cm3/g at a lignin:KOH:acrylic acid ratio of 1:0.5:0.05. Characterization by FE-SEM, XRD, EDS, and Raman spectroscopy confirmed the successful synthesis of an optimized microporous carbon material. The carbon exhibited an outstanding lead ion adsorption capacity of 371 mg/g by Langmuir modeling. Adsorption kinetics followed pseudo-second-order, indicating chemisorption as the rate-controlling step. Thermodynamic analysis revealed the endothermic nature of lead adsorption, further enhanced at higher temperatures. Overall, the acrylic acid pretreatment approach enabled sustainable production of high surface area microporous carbon adsorbents from lignin using minimal KOH activation. The adsorbents demonstrated tremendous potential for removing lead ions via chemisorption mechanisms.

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Funding

This work is based upon research funded by Iran National Science Foundation (INSF) under project No. 99008793.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Wood and Paper Sciences and Technology, Faculty of Natural Resources, University of Tehran, Karaj, Iran

    Reza Pourbaba & Ali Abdulkhani

  2. Nanotechnology Research Center, Research Institute of Petroleum Industry (RIPI), Tehran, Iran

    Alimorad Rashidi

  3. Department of Chemical Technologies, Iranian Research Organization for Science and Technology (IROST), Tehran, Iran

    Alireza Ashori

  4. Institute of Tropical Forestry and Forest Products (INTROP), University of Putra Malaysia, 43400, Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia

    Ariana Braving

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  1. Reza Pourbaba
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  2. Ali Abdulkhani
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  3. Alimorad Rashidi
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  4. Alireza Ashori
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  5. Ariana Braving
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Contributions

RP: investigation, methodology, formal analysis, visualization, validation. AA: investigation, methodology, formal analysis, visualization, supervision, validation. AR : supervision, conceptualization, methodology, validation, resources. AA: validation, writing—original draft preparation, writing—review and editing. AB: methodology and validation. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Alireza Ashori.

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Pourbaba, R., Abdulkhani, A., Rashidi, A. et al. Sustainable Production of Hierarchically Porous Carbon from Lignin-Acrylic Acid Copolymers. J Polym Environ (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10924-023-03177-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10924-023-03177-2

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