Nitrogen doped hierarchically structured porous carbon fibers with an ultrahigh specific surface area for removal of organic dyes

Abstract

Recently, tremendous efforts have been devoted to creating inexpensive porous carbon materials with a high specific surface area (SSA) as adsorbents or catalysts for the efficient removal of organic pollutants. Here, activated porous carbon fibers with hierarchical structures were designed and constructed by an electrospinning technique, in situ polymerization, and activation and carbonization processes. Benefiting from the precursor fiber design and subsequent activation techniques, the activated porous carbon fibers (APCFs) derived from a benzoxazine/polyacrylonitrile (BA-a/PAN) precursor exhibited an ultrahigh SSA of 2337.16 m 2 g À1 and a pore volume of 1.24 cm 3 g À1, showing excellent adsorption capacity toward methylene blue (MeB, 2020 mg g À1). Interestingly, the APCFs after pre-adsorption of MeB also display robust activation of peroxymonosulfate (PMS) with singlet oxygen for the ultrafast removal of MeB. Meanwhile, the synergistic effect of adsorption and a catalytic oxidation reaction using APCFs can realize outstanding total organic carbon (TOC) removal in a comparatively short time. Moreover, a synergistic adsorption-oxidation mechanism for promoting the removal of MeB using APCFs was proposed. This study is useful for the design and development of novel metal-free carbon adsorbents, catalysts or catalyst carriers with an ultrahigh SSA for various applications.

Nanofibers for Water and Wastewater Treatment: Recent Advances and Developments

“…Also, activated carbon nanofiber membranes can degrade dyes. Electrospun membranes made of PAN, a precursor of activated carbon, had porous hierarchical structure (Zhu et al 2018;Lin et al 2017) after exposing to high thermal treatment. Also, the oxidation power of the carbon materials could be enhanced by the incorporation of cobalt into the spinning solution (Lin et al 2017).…”

Developing Polybenzoxazine Composites Based on Various Carbon Structures

“…A maximum surface area of 802 m 2 g −1 was observed for the activated CFs after heating process at 850 °C for 5 h. Nitrogen adsorption–desorption isotherms revealed that the resultant activated CFs were mostly microporous. Carbon fibers derived from PAN/PBZ precursor exhibited a tunable porous structure with ultrahigh specific area of more than 2000 m 2 g −1 and pore volume of 1.12 cm 3 g −1 , providing new insights into the design and development of metal‐free adsorbents, catalysts, or carbon supports …”

Oxidative Desulfurization Catalyzed by Phosphotungstic Acid Supported on Hierarchical Porous Carbons

“…Supercapacitors assembled with porous carbon as electrodes exhibited large specific capacitances and provided good cycle stability. Liu et al [ 17 ] combined the electrospinning technology, the in situ polymerization and carbonization processes, and the manufacturing process to produce a nitrogen-doped graded porous carbon fiber material, which can remove organic dyes efficiently. It also mentioned that in multi-stage pore materials, macropores can provide efficient mass transfer [ 18 , 19 ], while micropores/mesopores provided a large surface area for the dispersion of HPW [ 20 , 21 , 22 ].…”