Issue 64, 2019

Study of the modification mechanism of heavy metal ions adsorbed by biomass-activated carbon doped with a solid nitrogen source

Abstract

In this study, the N-doping of biomass-activated carbon with dicyandiamide was performed via an ultrasonic method and a redox method. BET, SEM, EDS, FT-IR and XPS were used to determine the pore structures, morphologies and surface chemistry of the adsorbents obtained. The N-doping effect of the two modification methods on the same solid nitrogen source was evaluated and the simulated adsorption experiments of heavy metal ions in wastewater were conducted. The results showed that the N-doped biomass-activated carbon having the higher doping content was obtained by a redox method with nitric acid at 25 °C, a solid nitrogen source ratio of 1 : 1 and charring at 800 °C for 2 hours. The adsorption efficiency for the divalent copper ion of the sample obtained by the redox method was 41.15% higher than that of the ultrasonic method sample, and proved that pyridinium nitrogens and amino groups play important roles in adsorption and complexation processes. The isothermal adsorption experiments of N-doped activated carbon conformed to the Freundlich model, which mainly depended on chemical adsorption. The kinetics for copper ion adsorption followed a pseudo-second-order kinetic model. Thermodynamic experiments showed that a higher temperature was advantageous to adsorption. Simultaneously, this study further analyzed the N-doping process of the redox method sample and suggested that improvements can be implemented in the N-doping of activated carbon with solid nitrogen sources.

Graphical abstract: Study of the modification mechanism of heavy metal ions adsorbed by biomass-activated carbon doped with a solid nitrogen source

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
08 Sep 2019
Accepted
01 Nov 2019
First published
15 Nov 2019
This article is Open Access
Creative Commons BY-NC license

RSC Adv., 2019,9, 37440-37449

Study of the modification mechanism of heavy metal ions adsorbed by biomass-activated carbon doped with a solid nitrogen source

W. Zheng, S. Chen, H. Liu, Y. Ma and W. Xu, RSC Adv., 2019, 9, 37440 DOI: 10.1039/C9RA07191A

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