Starch-derived carbon aerogels with high-performance for sorption of cationic dyes
✍ Scribed by Xinhong Chang; Dairong Chen; Xiuling Jiao
- Publisher
- Elsevier Science
- Year
- 2010
- Tongue
- English
- Weight
- 803 KB
- Volume
- 51
- Category
- Article
- ISSN
- 0032-3861
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✦ Synopsis
Environmentally green carbon aerogels have been prepared as adsorbents for dye-containing wastewater. The aerogels were prepared by carbonization of starch aerogels synthesized from soluble starch through a solegel process followed by drying at ambient pressure. The Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET) surface areas and pore size distribution were measured by N 2 adsorption/desorption, and the surface zeta-potential and microstructure of carbon aerogels were characterized using a scanning electron microscope (SEM) and zeta-potential analyzer. SEM images indicate that the carbon aerogels consist of flakes with side length of 60e120 mm and thickness of 3e4 mm. The flakes are irregular in shape and composed of spherical carbon nanoparticles of 10e30 nm. The carbon aerogels have both microporous and mesoporous structures and exhibit high specific surface areas, the highest value is 1571 m 2 /g. The mean diameter of the micropores is 0.89 nm and that of the mesopores is 2e10 nm. At pH ¼ 10, the carbon aerogels have a zeta-potential of À40 mV and exhibit high adsorption capacities for cationic dyes, such as crystal violet (CV), methyl violet (MV) and methylene blue (MB), from aqueous solution. The largest adsorption capacities for CV, MV and MB are 1515, 1423 and 1181 mg/g, respectively.