Mechanisms and adsorption capacities of hydrogen peroxide modified ball milled biochar for the removal of methylene blue from aqueous solutions

Yue Zhang; Yulin Zheng; Yicheng Yang; Jinsheng Huang; Andrew R Zimmerman; Hao Chen; Xin Hu; Bin Gao

doi:10.1016/j.biortech.2021.125432

Mechanisms and adsorption capacities of hydrogen peroxide modified ball milled biochar for the removal of methylene blue from aqueous solutions

Bioresour Technol. 2021 Oct:337:125432. doi: 10.1016/j.biortech.2021.125432. Epub 2021 Jun 23.

Authors

Yue Zhang¹, Yulin Zheng¹, Yicheng Yang¹, Jinsheng Huang¹, Andrew R Zimmerman², Hao Chen³, Xin Hu⁴, Bin Gao⁵

Affiliations

¹ Department of Agricultural and Biological Engineering, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32611, United States.
² Department of Geological Sciences, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32611, USA.
³ Department of Agriculture, University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff, Pine Bluff, AR 71601, USA.
⁴ Center of Material Analysis, Nanjing University, Nanjing 210093, China.
⁵ Department of Agricultural and Biological Engineering, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32611, United States. Electronic address: bg55@ufl.edu.

PMID: 34171704
DOI: 10.1016/j.biortech.2021.125432

Abstract

In this work, hickory chip biochars developed at distinctive pyrolysis temperatures were ball milled (BMHC) and then post-modified with a 10% hydrogen peroxide (H₂O₂) solution to obtain a set of novel sorbents (BMHC-H₂O₂). The specific surface area (SSA) was dramatically increased after ball-milling while the hydroxyl and carboxyl groups on the surface of the biochars were further increased through H₂O₂ modification. Additionally, thermal stability of the biochar treated with ball-milling was not greatly reduced by H₂O₂ modification and hydrodynamic radius was decreased. Ball milling enhanced the adsorption efficiency to methylene blue (MB) by the biochar, and this ability was further increased by H₂O₂ modification, because of the increasing in oxygen-containing functional groups (OCFG) to interact with MB. The rate of MB adsorption to BMHC-H₂O₂ was faster than that of BMHC, reaching equilibrium after about 6 h. Among adsorbents tested, the 450 °C BMHC-H₂O₂ had the greatest MB adsorption capacity (310 mg g^-1).

Keywords: Adsorption; Ball Milling; Biochar; Methylene Blue; Oxidation.

MeSH terms

Adsorption
Charcoal
Hydrogen Peroxide
Methylene Blue*
Water Pollutants, Chemical* / analysis

Substances

Water Pollutants, Chemical
biochar
Charcoal
Hydrogen Peroxide
Methylene Blue