Sorption properties of activated carbons obtained from corn cobs by chemical and physical activation

Abstract

The paper presents results of a study on obtaining activated carbon from common corn cobs and on its use as adsorbent for removal of pollution from liquid and gas phases. The crushed precursor was subjected to pyrolysis at 500 and 800°C in argon atmosphere and next to physical or chemical activation by CO 2 and KOH respectively. The effect of pyrolysis conditions and activation method on the physicochemical properties of the materials obtained was tested. The sorption properties of the carbonaceous adsorbents obtained were characterized by determination of nitrogen dioxide and hydrogen sulphide sorption from gas stream in dry and wet conditions as well as by iodine and methylene blue removal from aqueous solution.The final products were microporous activated carbons of well-developed surface area varying from 337 to 1213 m 2 /g and showing diverse acid-base character of the surface. The results obtained in our study have proved that a suitable choice of the activation procedure for corn cobs permits production of cheap adsorbents with high sorption capacity toward toxic gases of acidic character as well as different pollutants from liquid phase.

Impact of poly(vinyl alcohol) adsorption on the surface characteristics of mixed oxide Mn x O y –SiO2

“…Of great variety of techniques; plasma modification (Kuraica et al 2003;Punga and Borcia 2013), adsorption of different low-and high-molecular compounds (Chibowski et al 2010;Nosal-Wiercińska 2012, 2013Wiśniewska et al 2013a;Nosal-Wiercińska 2014) and synthesis of mixed oxides (Maliyekkal et al 2006;Wu et al 2010) acquired the most significant importance. Appropriate modification leads to obtaining solids of the properties desired in various ecological and technological processes (Kaźmierczak et al 2013;Nowicki et al 2014Nowicki et al , 2015a.…”

The effect of mineral matter on the physicochemical and sorption properties of brown coal-based activated carbons

“…From among the various materials used for this purpose (Goscianska et al 2013;Wiśniewska et al 2007Wiśniewska et al , 2013Wiśniewska et al , 2014Kierys et al 2013;Wiśniewska 2010Wiśniewska , 2012Krysztafkiewicz et al 2002;Thomas and Syres 2012;De Smedt et al 2015;Qian et al 2015) the most popular and promising are the carbonaceous sorbents, especially activated carbons (Jiang et al 2015;Deng et al 2015;Sharma and Upadhyay 2009;Goscianska and Pietrzak 2015;Jiang and Chen 2011). Such materials could be prepared in a simple way by physical or chemical activation of variety of organic substances, including wood (Wang et al 2009;Nowicki et al 2015a), peat (Khadiran et al 2015), fossil coals (Nowicki and Pietrzak 2011;Maroto-Valer et al 2005;Teng et al 1998) as well as many biodegradable (Karagöz et al 2008;Soleimani and Kaghazchi 2008;Kazmierczak et al 2013Kazmierczak et al , 2015Nowicki et al 2015b) and industrial waste (Nakagawa et al 2003;Hofman and Pietrzak 2011;Nowicki et al 2013;Lin and Teng 2002). Taking into account economic and ecological aspects, particularly suited for this purpose are fossil coals of low quality, the use of which in a chemical industry (e.g.…”

Enthalpic Contribution of Ni(II) in the Interaction between Carbonaceous Material and Aqueous Solution

“…10 g of the solution at 25 ∘ C and a solid sample of 100 mg are added to the calorimetric cell (weight with accuracy of 0.1 mg) that is placed inside the cell in a glass ampoule and starts the potential registration output from the thermal sensor for a period of approximately 15 minutes taking potential readings every 20 seconds; it is necessary to perform the breaking of the glass ampoule, record the thermal effect generated, and continue with the potential readings for approximately 15 more minutes; finally the system is calibrated electrically [9]. …”