Preparation of Carbon Aerogel Electrode for Electrosorption of Copper Ions in Aqueous Solution

Ziling Cao; Chen Zhang; Zhuoxin Yang; Qing Qin; Zhihua Zhang; Xiaodong Wang; Jun Shen

doi:10.3390/ma12111864

Preparation of Carbon Aerogel Electrode for Electrosorption of Copper Ions in Aqueous Solution

Materials (Basel). 2019 Jun 9;12(11):1864. doi: 10.3390/ma12111864.

Authors

Ziling Cao¹, Chen Zhang², Zhuoxin Yang³, Qing Qin⁴, Zhihua Zhang⁵, Xiaodong Wang⁶, Jun Shen⁷

Affiliations

¹ Shanghai Key Laboratory of Special Artificial Microstructure Materials and Technology, Department of Physics Science and Engineering of Tongji University, Shanghai 200092, China. 1653583@tongji.edu.cn.
² Shanghai Key Laboratory of Special Artificial Microstructure Materials and Technology, Department of Physics Science and Engineering of Tongji University, Shanghai 200092, China. chenzhang_tj@163.com.
³ Shanghai Key Laboratory of Special Artificial Microstructure Materials and Technology, Department of Physics Science and Engineering of Tongji University, Shanghai 200092, China. yangzhuoxin@tongji.edu.cn.
⁴ Shanghai Key Laboratory of Special Artificial Microstructure Materials and Technology, Department of Physics Science and Engineering of Tongji University, Shanghai 200092, China. 1653574@tongji.edu.cn.
⁵ Shanghai Key Laboratory of Special Artificial Microstructure Materials and Technology, Department of Physics Science and Engineering of Tongji University, Shanghai 200092, China. zzhtj@tongji.edu.cn.
⁶ Shanghai Key Laboratory of Special Artificial Microstructure Materials and Technology, Department of Physics Science and Engineering of Tongji University, Shanghai 200092, China. xiaodong_wang@tongji.edu.cn.
⁷ Shanghai Key Laboratory of Special Artificial Microstructure Materials and Technology, Department of Physics Science and Engineering of Tongji University, Shanghai 200092, China. shenjun67@tongji.edu.cn.

Abstract

Carbon aerogel (CA) has a rich porous structure, in which micropores and mesopores provide a huge specific surface area to form electric double layers. This property can be applied to the application of capacitive deionization (CDI). The adsorption effect of CA electrode on Cu²⁺ in an aqueous solution was explored for solving heavy metal water pollution. The CAs were synthesized by a sol-gel process using an atmospheric drying method. The structure of CAs was characterized by scanning in an electron microscope (SEM) and nitrogen adsorption/desorption techniques. The adsorption system was built using Cu²⁺ solution as the simulation of heavy metal pollution solution. The control variate method was used to investigate the effect of the anion species in copper solution, the molar ratio of resorcinol to catalyst (R/C) of CA, and the applied voltage and concentration of copper ion on the adsorption results.

Keywords: Cu2+ removal; capacitive deionization; carbon aerogel; electrosorption.

Abstract

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