Multiscale Porous Carbon Materials by In Situ Growth of Metal–Organic Framework in the Micro-Channel of Delignified Wood for High-Performance Water Purification

Abstract

Porous carbon materials are suitable as highly efficient adsorbents for the treatment of organic pollutants in wastewater. In this study, we developed multiscale porous and heteroatom (O, N)-doped activated carbon aerogels (CAs) based on mesoporous zeolitic imidazolate framework-8 (ZIF-8) nanocrystals and wood using 2,2,6,6-tetramethylpiperidine-1-oxyl (TEMPO) oxidation, in situ synthesis, and carbonization/activation. The surface carboxyl groups in a TEMPO-oxidized wood (TW) can provide considerably large nucleation sites for ZIF-8. Consequently, ZIF-8, with excellent porosity, was successfully loaded into the TW via in situ growth to enhance the specific surface area and enable heteroatom doping. Thereafter, the ZIF-8-loaded TW was subjected to a direct carbonization/activation process, and the obtained activated CA, denoted as ZIF-8/TW-CA, exhibited a highly interconnected porous structure containing multiscale (micro, meso, and macro) pores. Additionally, the resultant ZIF-8/TW-CA exhibited a low density, high specific surface area, and excellent organic dye adsorption capacity of 56.0 mg cm−3, 785.8 m2 g−1, and 169.4 mg g−1, respectively. Given its sustainable, scalable, and low-cost wood platform, the proposed high-performance CA is expected to enable the substantial expansion of strategies for environmental protection, energy storage, and catalysis.

Research on the Migration and Adsorption Mechanism Applied to Microplastics in Porous Media: A Review

“…Activated carbon is ideal for simulating particle migration in natural soil environments due to its extremely high specific surface area and porous structure. Wood, as a natural biomass, exhibits a multi-scale porous structure ranging from macro to nano levels [ 60 ], and the adsorption capacity of wood can be significantly improved by making activated carbon from wood through high-temperature carbonization treatment for use in column experiments. This is due to the fact that its porous structure and surface functional groups contribute to the adsorption efficiency [ 61 ].…”