Surface modification and characterization of carbonaceous adsorbents for the efficient removal of oil pollutants

Hirra Anjum; Khairiraihanna Johari; Arunagiri Appusamy; Nirmala Gnanasundaram; Murugesan Thanabalan

doi:10.1016/j.jhazmat.2019.05.066

Surface modification and characterization of carbonaceous adsorbents for the efficient removal of oil pollutants

J Hazard Mater. 2019 Nov 5:379:120673. doi: 10.1016/j.jhazmat.2019.05.066. Epub 2019 May 28.

Authors

Hirra Anjum¹, Khairiraihanna Johari¹, Arunagiri Appusamy², Nirmala Gnanasundaram³, Murugesan Thanabalan⁴

Affiliations

¹ Department of Chemical Engineering, Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS, 32610 Seri Iskandar, Perak Darul Ridzuan, Malaysia.
² Department of Chemical Engineering, National Institute of Technology, Trichy, 620015, India.
³ Department of Chemical Engineering, Vellore Institute of Technology, Tamil Nadu, 632014, India.
⁴ Department of Chemical Engineering, Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS, 32610 Seri Iskandar, Perak Darul Ridzuan, Malaysia; Center of Research in Ionic Liquids, Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS, 32610 Seri Iskandar, Perak Darul Ridzuan, Malaysia. Electronic address: murugesan@utp.edu.my.

PMID: 31254791
DOI: 10.1016/j.jhazmat.2019.05.066

Abstract

In this study, the impact of different oxidizing agents on the structural integrity of activated carbon (AC) and multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) was studied for the removal of BTX from aqueous solution. Seven different combinations of green oxidizing agents (mild organic acids) in conjugation with NaOCl (basic oxidizing agent) were used. The modified adsorbents were analyzed by Brunauer, Emmett, and Teller (BET) surface area analyzer, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), Boehm titration, Raman spectroscopy, thermal gravimetric analysis (TGA), x-ray diffraction (XRD), zeta potential, and variable pressure field emission scanning electron microscope (VPFESEM). The results suggested that the carbonaceous sorbents modified with combination of citric acid tartaric acid, malic acid and salicylic acid (CTMS-I) showed increased surface area (O-AC: 871.67 m²/g, O-MWCNTs: 336.37 m²/g) and total pore volume (O-AC: 0.59 cm³/g, O-MWCNTs: 0.04 cm³/g), with the significantly improved thermal stability. Preliminary batch adsorption experiments conducted using the present prepared O-AC and O-MWCNTs, showed an improved performance towards the adsorption of BTX, compared with other available reported adsorbents in the literature.

Keywords: AC; BTX; Green oxidizing agents; MWCNTs; Surface modification.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't