Publication Details

Category Text Publication
Reference Category Journals
DOI 10.3390/ijms24043831
Licence creative commons licence
Title (Primary) Bottom-up synthesis of de-functionalized and dispersible carbon spheres as colloidal adsorbent
Author Balda, M.; Mackenzie, K. ORCID logo ; Woszidlo, S.; Uhlig, H.; Möllmer, J.; Kopinke, F.-D.; Schüürmann, G.; Georgi, A.
Source Titel International Journal of Molecular Sciences
Year 2023
Department OEC; TUCHEM
Volume 24
Issue 4
Page From art. 3831
Language englisch
Topic T7 Bioeconomy
T9 Healthy Planet
Supplements https://www.mdpi.com/article/10.3390/ijms24043831/s1
Keywords activated carbon spheres; dispersibility; hydrothermal carbonization; adsorption; groundwater remediation; colloidal activated carbon
Abstract Recent innovative adsorption technologies for water purification rely on micrometer-sized activated carbon (AC) for ultrafast adsorption or in situ remediation. In this study, the bottom-up synthesis of tailored activated carbon spheres (aCS) from sucrose as renewable feedstock is demonstrated. The synthesis is based on a hydrothermal carbonization step followed by a targeted thermal activation of the raw material. This preserves its excellent colloid properties, i.e., narrow particle size distribution around 1 µm, ideal spherical shape and excellent aqueous dispersibility. We investigated the ageing of the freshly synthesized, highly de-functionalized AC surface in air and aqueous media under conditions relevant to the practice. A slow but significant ageing due to hydrolysis and oxidation reactions was observed for all carbon samples, leading to an increase of the oxygen contents with storage time. In this study, a tailored aCS product was generated within a single pyrolysis step with 3 vol.-% H2O in N2 in order to obtain the desired pore diameters and surface properties. Adsorption characteristics, including sorption isotherms and kinetics, were investigated with monochlorobenzene (MCB) and perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) as adsorbates. The product showed high sorption affinities up to log (KD/[L/kg]) of 7.3 ± 0.1 for MCB and 6.2 ± 0.1 for PFOA, respectively.
Persistent UFZ Identifier https://www.ufz.de/index.php?en=20939&ufzPublicationIdentifier=24937
Balda, M., Mackenzie, K., Woszidlo, S., Uhlig, H., Möllmer, J., Kopinke, F.-D., Schüürmann, G., Georgi, A. (2023):
Bottom-up synthesis of de-functionalized and dispersible carbon spheres as colloidal adsorbent
Int. J. Mol. Sci. 24 (4), art. 3831 10.3390/ijms24043831