Issue 3, 2024

Green synthesis of a disordered N-doped carbonaceous aerogel from waste for the removal of over-the-counter drugs and environmental assessment

Abstract

As the world grapples with the growing threat of water pollution, a particular concern is the presence of pharmaceutical pollutants in our water sources. Advanced adsorption methods for the removal of over-the-counter pharmaceuticals from wastewater have yet to appear due to the complexity of adsorbent synthesis and the risk of introducing nanomaterial contaminants into water. Herein, the risk of secondary contamination was reduced by using a sustainable, cost-effective, self-standing and super hydrophobic 3D N-doped carbonaceous aerogel (N-CA). The N-CA was synthesized in a one-pot approach using waste jaggery as a raw material. N-CA has advantageous characteristics, such as ultralight and easily separable, environmental friendliness, high stability, economic feasibility and ease in synthesis. N-CA demonstrates remarkable adsorption efficiency towards the removal of emerging pollutants with varying structures under natural conditions. In just 40 minutes, N-CA removes ∼96% of acetylsalicylic acid (ASP) and ∼99% of acetaminophen (PCM) at room temperature. The maximum adsorption capacity (qm) of N-CA was determined to be 138.6963 ± 7.8687 mg g−1 for ASP and 117.7856 ± 2.7219 mg g−1 for PCM. The recycling study of N-CA demonstrated that the PCM and ASP absorption was almost the same up to seven and five cycles, respectively. Additionally, enhanced germination of beans and healthy growth of plants were observed in treated water compared to ASP and PCM contaminated water. The observations from this study reveal the potential of waste biomass-based materials in water remediation and the value of treated water in many applications.

Graphical abstract: Green synthesis of a disordered N-doped carbonaceous aerogel from waste for the removal of over-the-counter drugs and environmental assessment

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
13 fev 2024
Accepted
18 fev 2024
First published
20 fev 2024
This article is Open Access
Creative Commons BY-NC license

RSC Appl. Interfaces, 2024,1, 580-590

Green synthesis of a disordered N-doped carbonaceous aerogel from waste for the removal of over-the-counter drugs and environmental assessment

H. Asati, R. Mondal and K. M. Tripathi, RSC Appl. Interfaces, 2024, 1, 580 DOI: 10.1039/D4LF00046C

This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported Licence. You can use material from this article in other publications, without requesting further permission from the RSC, provided that the correct acknowledgement is given and it is not used for commercial purposes.

To request permission to reproduce material from this article in a commercial publication, please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

If you are an author contributing to an RSC publication, you do not need to request permission provided correct acknowledgement is given.

If you are the author of this article, you do not need to request permission to reproduce figures and diagrams provided correct acknowledgement is given. If you want to reproduce the whole article in a third-party commercial publication (excluding your thesis/dissertation for which permission is not required) please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

Read more about how to correctly acknowledge RSC content.

Social activity

Spotlight

Advertisements