Three-dimensional hierarchical porous carbon structure derived from pinecone as a potential catalyst support in catalytic remediation of antibiotics

S O Sanni; E L Viljoen; A E Ofomaja

doi:10.1039/c9ra10638c

Three-dimensional hierarchical porous carbon structure derived from pinecone as a potential catalyst support in catalytic remediation of antibiotics

RSC Adv. 2020 Feb 28;10(15):8717-8728. doi: 10.1039/c9ra10638c. eCollection 2020 Feb 27.

Authors

S O Sanni¹, E L Viljoen¹, A E Ofomaja¹

Affiliation

¹ Biosorption and Wastewater Treatment Research Laboratory, Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Applied and Computer Sciences, Vaal University of Technology P. Bag X021 Vanderbijlpark-1900 South Africa aus_ofomaja@yahoo.com augustineo@vut.ac.za.

Abstract

In this study, pinecone was converted via two stage pyrolysis to produce low cost activated carbon. Furnace pyrolysis was used in the first step to convert pinecone to carbonized material, followed by microwave pyrolysis of the carbonized material activated with KOH to obtain activated carbon (ACK) materials as a suitable catalyst support. The ACK samples were characterized by their morphology, structural, adsorption and electrochemical properties. The optimized ACK 2.24-16 prepared from the pinecone had a complex three-dimensional (3D)-hierarchical porous structure, with an abundance of micropores and mesopores compared to other ACK samples judging from the high iodine number (1900 mg g^-1) and the methylene blue number (4000 mg g^-1) capacity. The optimized ACK 2.24-16 had the highest current response and least charge transfer resistance, along with moderate surface area (427 m² g^-1) as a promising photocatalyst support. The 3D hierarchical porous ACK significantly assisted catalyst dispersion, and enhanced visible light absorption and fast interfacial charge transfer. This work shows the promising aspect of utilizing pinecone to produce a low-cost photocatalyst support for environmental remediation.