Functional surface homogenization of nanobiochar with cation exchanger for improved removal performance of methylene blue and lead pollutants

Abstract

Biochar materials are good examples of sustainable adsorbents with appreciable recent interests and applications in water treatment. The disadvantage of using unmodified pristine biochars in water treatment is mainly related to the inhomogeneous distribution of various surface functional groups. Therefore, the current study is designed to functionalize and homogenize the surface of a selected nanobiochar with a cation exchanger using hydrothermal and solvothermal microwave irradiation. The adsorption behavior of immobilized Amberlite cation exchanger onto Cynara scolymus nanobiochar (ACE@CSNB) was compared versus the pristine Cynara scolymus nanobiochar (CSNB). ACE@CSNB was categorized as a typical mesoporous material (mean pore size = 2.238 nm) and the FT-IR spectra confirmed surface modification via two characteristic peaks at 1140–1250 cm−1 and 1030–1070 cm−1 for R-SO3− with S = O. The TPD–MS analysis of CSNB and ACE@CSNB referred to the presence of carboxyl, lactonic, and acid anhydride groups as well as phenolic moieties. The adsorption behavior of methylene blue dye and lead ions by ACE@CSNB was found much higher than those concluded by CSNB providing maximum adsorptive capacity values owing to the played clear role by Amberlite cation exchanger. Moreover, ACE@CSNB was efficiently regenerated and confirmed MB and Pb(II) removal with 92.26% and 1000 µmol g−1, respectively Finally, the removal efficiency values from three water matrices by ACE@CSNB biochar were characterized as 91.74–98.19% and 96.27–99.14% for Pb(II) and MB, respectively to refer to the validity and applicability of the investigated ACE@CSNB biochar for treatment of these two pollutants from real water samples with excellent efficiency. Graphical Abstract

Nano-biochar: recent progress, challenges, and opportunities for sustainable environmental remediation

“…Nano-BC has demonstrated exceptional adsorption capability of hazardous organic and inorganic compounds, personal care products, pharmaceutically active compounds, insecticides, and heavy metals from various environmental matrices (Ma et al, 2022;Jiang et al, 2023;Mahmoud et al, 2023). The excellent sorption ability of nano-BC is due to the generation of a stable colloidal solution, greater surface areas, porosity, and surface charge.…”

“…In lower pH environments, the surface functional groups of nano-BC get protonated to generate H + . This causes competition between H + and cationic contaminants for sorption sites thus affecting nano-BC's sorption capability (Mahmoud et al, 2023). Wang et al (2017) reported that co-existence of lead and p-nitrophenol improved the sorption of p-nitrophenol on nano-BC.…”

Conversion of bare corn cobs waste into sustainable and ecofriendly nanobiosorbent for effective removal of cationic basic fuchsin and methylene blue dyes from water

“…Biochars represent a class of carbon-rich materials which are produced as stable byproducts from the thermochemical decomposition of multidiscipline biomasses under no or oxygen-limited atmosphere [9]. Due to their porous structures and significant surface functional groups, biochars have attracted great attention worldwide for solving the environmental problems as soil management [10], carbon sequestration [11], and water decontamination, purification and remediation from various pollutants [12] including toxic heavy metal cations and anions [13,14], pharmaceuticals [15,16], and dyes [17][18][19][20]. Excessive amounts of organic pollutants are daily generated from various sources as industrial effluents and other domestic activities [21].…”