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Mesoporous carbon derived from anaerobic granular sludge through molten salt method and its application for dye adsorption: an experimental and molecular dynamics simulation study

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Abstract

Sludge, a kind of carbon-rich material, can be produced as activated carbon. Mesoporous carbon derived from sludge has advantages in dye adsorption. However, most studies focus on the characteristic of surface area, pore volume, and pore size distribution but not the adsorption kinetics of mesoporous carbon. In this study, mesoporous carbon was prepared from anaerobic granular sludge through the molten salt method. The highest specific surface area can be 728.67 m2 g−1 at calcination temperature of 500 °C and time of 2 h. The removal of methylene blue (MB) and methyl orange (MO) can be above 99% with the dye concentration of 40 mg L−1. MB and MO adsorption experiment fitted well with pseudo-second-order kinetics. According to molecular dynamics simulation, the adsorption of MO on the surface of mesoporous carbon was easier than that of MB, while MB and mesoporous carbon system was stable. The frontier molecular orbital analysis was consistent with the experiment results. The sludge-derived activated carbon prepared by molten salt method had typical mesoporous structure and enhanced the dye adsorption.

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Funding

This work was supported by the Fundamental Research Funds for Colleges and Universities in Liaoning Province, China (grant number lnjc202012 and lnqn202020).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Material Science and Engineering, Shenyang Jianzhu University, Shenyang, 110168, China

    Miao Zhang & Jianchun Gao

  2. School of Municipal and Environmental Engineering, Shenyang Jianzhu University, Shenyang, 110168, China

    En Shi, Xinyu Wang, Xin Wang & Yunbin Zheng

  3. Institute of Chemical Materials, China Academy of Engineering Physics, Mianyang, 621999, China

    Shengnan Wang

Authors
  1. Miao Zhang
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  5. Xin Wang
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Contributions

All authors contributed to the study conception and design. Material preparation, data collection, and analysis were performed by Miao Zhang, Jianchun Gao, and En Shi. The first draft of the manuscript was written by Miao Zhang, En Shi, and Shengnan Wang, and all authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to En Shi or Shengnan Wang.

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Zhang, M., Gao, J., Shi, E. et al. Mesoporous carbon derived from anaerobic granular sludge through molten salt method and its application for dye adsorption: an experimental and molecular dynamics simulation study. Biomass Conv. Bioref. 14, 11459–11468 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13399-022-02999-9

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