Removal of organic contaminants from aqueous solution by cattle manure compost (CMC) derived activated carbons

The activated carbons (ACs) prepared from cattle manure compost (CMC) with various pore structure and surface chemistry were used to remove phenol and methylene blue (MB) from aqueous solutions. The adsorption equilibrium and kinetics of two organic contaminants onto the ACs were investigated and the schematic models for the adsorptive processes were proposed. The result shows that the removal of functional groups from ACs surface leads to decreasing both rate constants for phenol and MB adsorption. It also causes the decrement of MB adsorption capacity. However, the decrease of surface functional groups was found to result in the increase of phenol adsorption capacity. In our schematic model for adsorptive processes, the presence of acidic functional groups on the surface of carbon is assumed to act as channels for diffusion of adsorbate molecules onto small pores, therefore, promotes the adsorption rate of both phenol and MB. In phenol solution, water molecules firstly adsorb on surface oxygen groups by H-bonding and subsequently form water clusters, which cause partial blockage of the micropores, deduce electrons from the π-electron system of the carbon basal planes, hence, impede or prevent phenol adsorption. On the contrary, in MB solution, the oxygen groups prefer to combine with MB⁺ cations than water molecules, which lead to the increase of MB adsorption capacity.     

The effect of surface modification on heavy metal ion removal from water by carbon nanoporous adsorbent

In this work, chemically oxidized mesoporous carbon (COMC) with excellent lead adsorption performance was prepared by an acid surface modification method from mesoporous carbon (MC) by wet impregnation method. The structural order and textural properties of the mesoporous materials were studied by XRD, SEM, and nitrogen adsorption. The presence of carboxylic functional groups on the carbon surface was confirmed by FT-IR analysis. Batch adsorption experiments were conducted to study the effect of adsorbent dose, initial concentration and temperature for the removal of Pb(II) from aqueous systems. The adsorption was maximum for the initial pH in the range of 6.5-8.0. The kinetic data were best fitted to the pseudo-second order model. The adsorption of chemically oxidized mesoporous carbon to Pb(II) fits to the Langmuir model. The larger adsorption capacity of chemically oxidized mesoporous carbon for Pb(II) is mainly due to the oxygenous functional groups formed on the surface of COMC which can react with Pb(II) to form salt or complex deposited on the surface of MC.     

Adsorption of nonpolar benzene derivatives on single-walled carbon nanotubes

The adsorption of benzene, toluene, and chlorobenzene on single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) with and without acid oxidation was conducted to investigate the influences of derivative groups on benzene rings and functional groups from SWCNTs on adsorption by SWCNTs. The SWCNTs of high purity were chosen and moderate acid oxidation was performed so that the surface physical properties remained unchanged after acid oxidation and the influences of acid oxidation on adsorption were only contributed from the modification of the surface chemistry of SWCNTs. The oxygen-containing surface groups introduced by acid oxidation obstructed the interactions between functional groups of nonpolar benzene derivatives and C-rings of SWCNTs significantly. The dispersive interaction between the partially positive H⁺ of the methyl group and the oxygen-containing surface groups slightly increased the adsorption of toluene on oxidized SWCNTs at high solution pH. The thermodynamic of adsorption was also studied at different temperatures.     

PAN基活性炭纤维的表面及其孔隙结构解析

通过氮吸附等温线、Ｘ射线光电子能谱以及扫描电子显微镜（ＳＥＭ）对聚丙烯腈（ＰＡＮ－Ｐｏｌｙａｃｒｙｌｏｎｉｔｒｉｌｅ）－基活性炭纤维（ＡＣＦ－Ａｃｔｉｖａｔｅｄ Ｃａｒｂｏｎ Ｆｉｂｅｒ）的表面和孔隙结构进行了分析，结果表明吸附测量可以提供有关碳质吸附剂的孔结构复杂性；通过ＸＰＳ对ＰＡＮ基ＡＣＦ的表面官能团的种类及含量进行了表征，由ＳＥＭ对ＰＡＮ基ＡＣＦ的表面以及断面的孔隙结构进行直拉观察，提供了     

Ammonia modification of activated carbon to enhance carbon dioxide adsorption: Effect of pre-oxidation

A commercial granular activated carbon (GAC) was subjected to thermal treatment with ammonia for obtaining an efficient carbon dioxide (CO₂) adsorbent. In general, CO₂ adsorption capacity of activated carbon can be increased by introduction of basic nitrogen functionalities onto the carbon surface. In this work, the effect of oxygen surface groups before introduction of basic nitrogen functionalities to the carbon surface on CO₂ adsorption capacity was investigated. For this purpose two different approaches of ammonia treatment without preliminary oxidation and amination of oxidized samples were studied. Modified carbons were characterized by elemental analysis and Fourier Transform Infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) to study the impact of changes in surface chemistry and formation of specific surface groups on adsorption properties. The texture of the samples was characterized by conducting N₂ adsorption/desorption at −196 °C. CO₂ capture performance of the samples was investigated using a thermogravimetric analysis (TGA). It was found that in both modification techniques, the presence of nitrogen functionalities on carbon surface generally increased the CO₂ adsorption capacity. The results indicated that oxidation followed by high temperature ammonia treatment (800 °C) considerably enhanced the CO₂ uptake at higher temperatures.     

Adsorption of aromatic compounds from the biodegradation of azo dyes on activated carbon

The adsorption of three selected aromatic compounds (aniline, sulfanilic acid and benzenesulfonic acid) on activated carbons with different surface chemical properties was investigated at different solution pH. A fairly basic commercial activated carbon was modified by means of chemical treatment with HNO₃, yielding an acid activated carbon. The textural properties of this sample were not significantly changed after the oxidation treatment. Equilibrium isotherms of the selected compounds on the mentioned samples were obtained and the results were discussed in relation to their surface chemistry. The influence of electrostatic and dispersive interactions involved in the uptake of the compounds studied was evaluated. The Freundlich model was used to fit the experimental data. Higher uptakes are attained when the compounds are present in their molecular form. In general, adsorption was disfavoured by the introduction of oxygen-containing groups on the surface of the activated carbon.     

Influence of the OH groups of hydroxylated rutile (110) surface on the Lewis acidity: an investigation of CO adsorption by quantum-mechanical simulations

The adsorption of carbon monoxide on a clean and hydroxylated rutile (110) surface has been investigated using a periodic approach at DFT/B3LYP level. The hydroxylated surface was modelled by considering both terminal and bridging OH groups. The variation of the electrophilicity of the Lewis acid site near these groups was evaluated by taking into account the adsorbate–substrate distance, the magnitude of the interaction energy and the blue-shift of the adsorbed CO stretching frequency. The results obtained suggest that the electrophilicity increases in proximity to OH terminal groups, and decreases near the OH bridging groups.     

含氮官能团种类对活性碳纤维吸附催化SO2的影响

活性碳纤维(ACF)可用于低温吸附催化脱除燃煤烟气中的SO₂,大量实验证明对ACF表面进行掺氮改性可显著提高其脱硫率,但理论研究相对较少,且不同种类含氮官能团对脱硫的影响仍未有定论.为此,采用密度泛函理论(DFT)和波函数分析对不同种类含氮官能团修饰的ACF的表面结构、静电相互作用、极化和分子轨道进行了对比研究.结果表明氮修饰不仅有利于增强ACF与吸附质分子SO₂间的静电相互作用,其催化氧化和感应SO₂分子的能力也有所提高.其中,石墨化氮掺杂的ACF的极性指数相较掺杂前提高了71.33%,性能改善最为显著,作为SO₂分子的选择性传感器和吸附催化剂颇具潜力.     

Preparation and hydrogen storage of activated rayon-based carbon fibers with high specific surface area

Activated carbon fibers were prepared from rayon-based carbon fibers by two step activations with steam and KOH treatments. Hydrogen storage properties of the activated rayon-based carbon fibers with high specific surface area and micropore volume have been investigated. SEM, XRD and Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET) were used to characterize the samples. The adsorption performance and porous structure were investigated by nitrogen adsorption isotherm at 77 K on the base of BET and density functional theory (DFT). The BET specific surface area and micropore volume of the activated rayon-based carbon fibers were 3144 m²/g and 0.744 m³/g, respectively. Hydrogen storage properties of the samples were measured at 77 and 298 K with pressure-composition isotherm (PCT) measuring system based on the volumetric method. The capacities of hydrogen storage of the activated rayon-based carbon fibers were 7.01 and 1.46 wt% at 77 and 298 K at 4 MPa, respectively. Possible mechanisms for hydrogen storage in the activated rayon-based carbon fibers are discussed.     

Conformation and energetics of benzene adsorbate on SnO2(110) surfaces: A first principles study

Adsorption of benzene on oxygen rich and reduced SnO₂ surfaces is studied by employing density functional theory calculations, slab model and linear combination of atomic orbitals approach. Rather than preferential adsorption sites, it is found that the adsorption potential energy surface is flat at both surfaces. The bridging oxygen atoms on the stoichiometric surface induce both covalent and ionic bonding leading to weak chemisorptions, whereas bonding on the reduce surface is closer to physisorption. Deformation of the benzene adsorbate due to adsorption is negligible and only small opposite charge transfer is found explaining the differences between the two surfaces.     

Adsorption of molecular oxygen on the reconstructed β2(2 × 4)-GaAs(0 0 1) surface: A first-principles study

In this work, first-principles modeling techniques are used to investigate the mechanism(s) of adsorption of molecular oxygen on the GaAs(0 0 1)-(2 × 4) surface. The reaction of adsorption was modeled using ab-initio molecular dynamics at constant temperature for two thermal regimes, i.e. 300 K and 680 K, respectively. The resulting adsorbate configurations were relaxed using density functional theory and the adsorption energies were subsequently computed. Our results suggest a dominant mechanism of adsorption described by molecular dissociation, followed by oxygen insertion in the Ga-As bonds, bridging Ga-O-As chemical bonds. The electronic properties of the clean reconstructed GaAs(0 0 1) surface and the ones obtained after O₂ adsorption were computed. It is found that for the most stable adsorbate configuration, where oxygen is incorporated in a Ga-O-As unit, the associated density of electronic states is free of defect levels within the GaAs band gap region.     

Influence of structural heterogeneity of nanoporous sorbent walls on hydrogen storage

Heterogeneity is an ubiquitous aspect of adsorption, often modifying substantially the observed behaviour of the adsorbate-adsorbent system. In this paper, the influence of heterogeneity is explicitly analyzed for the case of the adsorption of molecular hydrogen onto nanoporous carbon. Grand Canonical Monte Carlo simulations were used to study the mechanism of adsorption in the models of the adsorbate that include both energetic and structural modifications of graphene-based slit pores. In particular, a partial substitution of carbons by boron modifies both the symmetry of the energy landscape and the strength of hydrogen physisorption; which results in considerable increases of the amount of adsorbed gas without major modification of the mechanism of adsorption. Additional heterogeneity arises from structural modifications of the adsorbent by neutron irradiation of boron-doped samples, where the boron fission products generate additional surface area for adsorption. Simulations of adsorption in such pores show that hydrogen uptake is strongly dependent on the chemical nature of the modified pore walls.     

Adsorbate-site determination by surface-state spectroscopy?

Electronic surface states can interact with adsorbate orbitals only if they have the same symmetry with respect to the adsorption site. Therefore, the interaction between a surface state and a particular adsorbate orbital provides information about the symmetry properties of the adsorption site. This is discussed for the adsorption of hydrogen and ethylene on Ni(110).     

Interactions of water,methanol and diethyl ether molecules with the surface of oxidized activated carbon

Two samples of oxidized activated carbon of wood origin were used as adsorbents of water, methanol, and diethyl ether. Structural and chemical characteristics of the samples' surfaces were obtained using adsorption of nitrogen and Boehm titration. The adsorption isotherms of water and methanol were measured using a volumetric apparatus whereas the adsorption of diethyl ether was studied by means of inverse gas chromatography at finite concentration. Then the isotherms at three different temperatures were used to calculate the isosteric heats of adsorption. The results showed that the strength of interaction depends on the porosity of the sample and its surface chemistry. The effect of surface chemistry and the presence of oxygenated groups are predominant in the case of water and the least important in the case of diethyl ether. This is the result of the chemical nature of the molecules, their sizes, and the relative strengths of the dispersive interactions in small pores in comparison with hydrogen bonding to surface functional groups.     

Water vapor adsorption onto activated carbons prepared from cattle manure compost (CMC)

Activated carbons were prepared from cattle manure compost (CMC) using zinc chloride activation. The structural and surface chemical characteristics of CMC-based activated carbons were determined by N₂ adsorption-desorption and Boehm titration, respectively. The water vapor adsorption properties of the prepared activated carbons with various pore structure and surface nature were examined, and the mechanism of water adsorbed onto activated carbon was also discussed. The results show that the adsorption of water vapor on carbons begins at specific active sites at low relative humidity (RH), followed by micropore filling at medium RH through the formation of pentamer cluster of water molecules in the narrow micropores. The water vapor adsorption capacity of activated carbon is predominantly dependent on its pore volume and surface area. Although capillary condensation is not the mechanism for water adsorption onto activated carbon, water can adsorb on narrow mesopore to some extent.     

A DFT study of CO adsorbed on clean and hydroxylated anatase TiO2 (001) surfaces

The adsorbate–substrate interaction between carbon monoxide and clean and hydroxylated surfaces of anatase (001) was simulated by periodic DFT calculations. For the clean surface, different periodicities were taken into account in order to investigate the influence of lateral effects. The results show that the molecule interacts only with the penta-coordinated titanium ion when high surface coverages are employed, whereas it interacts with both the titanium and the di-coordinated oxygen ions when the smallest surface coverage is considered. Adsorption on the hydroxylated surface, which was carried out for the first time, was studied by considering the largest used periodicity and focusing attention on the influence of both the terminal and bridging OH groups. The resulting data show that, in the case of adsorption on the hydroxylated surface, no additional bond between the surface oxygen and the carbon atom is present. Therefore, in a regime of very low surface coverage, the molecule behaves in a very different way when it interacts with a clean or a hydroxylated surface.     

First-principles studies of the oxygen adsorption on unreconstructed and reconstructed Ni(1 1 0) surfaces

First-principles calculations have been performed to investigate the adsorption of oxygen on unreconstructed and reconstructed Ni(1 1 0) surfaces. The energetics, structural, electronic and magnetic properties are given in detail. For oxygen adsorption on unreconstructed surface, (n×1)(n=2,3) substrate with oxygen atom on short-bridge site is found to be the most stable adsorption configuration. Whereas energetically most favorable adsorption phase of reconstructed surface is p(n×1) substrate with oxygen atom located at long-bridge site. Our calculations suggest that the surface reconstruction is induced by the oxygen adsorption. We also find there are redistributions of electronic structure and electron transfer from the substrate to adsorbate. Our calculations also indicate surface magnetic moment is enhanced on clean surfaces and oxygen atoms are magnetized weakly after oxygen adsorption. Interestingly, adsorption on unreconstructed surface does not change surface magnetic moment. However, adsorbate leads to reduction of surface magnetic moment in reconstructed system remarkably.     

Plasma treatment of carbon fibers: Non-equilibrium dynamic adsorption and its effect on the mechanical properties of RTM fabricated composites

The effect of oxygen plasma treatment on the non-equilibrium dynamic adsorption of the carbon fabric reinforcements in RTM process was studied. 5-Dimethylamino-1-naphthalene-sulfonylchloride (DNS-Cl) was attached to the curing agent to study the change of curing agent content in the epoxy resin matrix. Steady state fluorescence spectroscopy (FS) analysis was used to study this changes in the epoxy resin at the inlet and outlet of the RTM mould, and XPS was used to study the chemical changes on the carbon fiber surfaces introduced by plasma treatment. The interlaminar shear strength (ILSS) and flexural strength were also measured to study the effects of this non-equilibrium dynamic adsorption progress on the mechanical properties of the end products. FS analysis shows that the curing agent adsorbed onto the fiber surface preferentially for untreated carbon fiber, the curing agent content in the resin matrix maintain unchanged after plasma treatment for 3 min and 5 min, but after oxygen plasma treatment for 7 min, the epoxy resin adsorbed onto the fiber surface preferentially. XPS analysis indicated that the oxygen plasma treatment successfully increased some polar functional groups concentration on the carbon fiber surfaces, this changes on the carbon fiber surfaces can change the adsorption ability of carbon fiber to the resin and curing agent. The mechanical properties of the composites were correlated to this results.     

Surface modification of a granular activated carbon by dielectric barrier discharge plasma and its effects on pentachlorophenol adsorption

The surface properties of a granular activated carbon (GAC) were modified by dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) plasma to enhance its adsorption capacity to pentachlorophenol (PCP). Surface characteristics and adsorption capacity of GAC before and after DBD plasma modification were investigated. Results showed that the surface of GAC after plasma modification, especially N₂ plasma, became smoother and the particulates on virgin GAC's surface were eliminated due to deposit effect of plasma. The N₂ plasma modification reduced the specific surface area and surface oxygen-containing functional groups of GAC. In contrast, O₂ plasma modification increased the specific surface area and introduced oxygen-containing groups.