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Fabrication of nitrogen-doped porous carbon nanofibers for heavy metal ions removal

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Abstract

In this article, nitrogen (N) doped porous carbon nanofibers (N-PCNF) were prepared by carbonization of polymer-silica nanocomposite precursor, and its application for heavy metal ion removal was demonstrated. Carbon–silica composite nanofibers were obtained by carbonization of electrospun polyacrylonitrile (PAN)-silica nanofiber composites. Subsequent selective etching of silica porogen produced porous carbon nanofibers (PCNF). It was revealed by surface characterization with X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) that the surface of the PCNF was nitrogen-doped because N atom from cyanide group in PAN chains remained in the hexagonal carbon structure. The use of the obtained N-PCNF for heavy metal ion (Hg2+) removal was demonstrated using a simple adsorption test apparatus and 5, 10, 15, 20-tetraphenylporphine tetrasulfonic acid (TPPS) as an indicator. The N-PCNF showed a removal efficiency of 96 and 99% in 10 and 120 min, respectively, indicating a maximum heavy metal ion adsorption capacity at pH 7.0. In addition, heavy metal ion adsorption behavior was also analyzed using common adsorption isotherms. This article provides important information for future research activities regarding control over hazardous substances.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the Industrial Strategic Technology Development Program (20012763, development of petroleum residue-based porous adsorbent for industrial wastewater treatment) and funded by the Ministry of Trade, Industry & Energy (MOTIE, Korea) and by National Research Foundation of Korea, Grant numbers NRF-2021R1F1A1061939.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Applied Chemistry, Dongduk Women’s University, Seoul, 02748, Republic of Korea

    Joonwon Bae

  2. Center for C1 Gas & Carbon Convergent Research, Korea Research Institute of Chemical Technology (KRICT), 141 Gajeong-ro, Yuseong-gu, Daejeon, 34114, Republic of Korea

    Jin-Yong Hong

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  1. Joonwon Bae
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Contributions

JB: design and perform the experiments, investigation, data analysis, visualization, writing original draft, and funding acquisition. JYH: conceptualization, developed the research plan and experimental strategy, performed part of the experiments, investigation, visualization, writing–review & editing, and funding acquisition. All authors discussed the results, reviewed and edited the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Jin-Yong Hong.

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Bae, J., Hong, JY. Fabrication of nitrogen-doped porous carbon nanofibers for heavy metal ions removal. Carbon Lett. 31, 1339–1347 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s42823-021-00291-w

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