Microporous Nitrogen Dopped Carbon Nanospheres as a Heavy Metal Adsorbent from Water

Water and soil contamination with heavy metals is a growing problem worldwide, especially in less developed countries. One of the most efficient and studied strategies for decontamination is adsorption, which still has a room for improvement. In this work our research group assesses the adsorption capacity of 3 microporous carbon nanosphere materials towards Cu (II) and Pb (II). Microporous carbon nanospheres were obtained at different conditions using sol-gel process. For instance, influence of reaction time and temperature were studied. Obtained materials were characterized and their heavy metal adsorption capacities were evaluated. Results show that all studied materials were able to adsorb metals with acceptable adsorption capacities (up to 107 mg/g for Cu(II) and up to 24 mg/g for Pb(II)). As a conclusion, present work has demonstrated that microporous carbon nanospheres synthetized for 3 h (reduction to 1/8 comparing to typical synthesis), possess satisfactory adsorption capacities, meanwhile the cost of adsorbent production is lower. Copyright © 2022, AIDIC Servizi S.r.l.

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