A novel approach for the facile synthesis of zinc oxide/carbon hybrid systems from corn distillers soluble: Surface modification and characterization for sustainable remediation

Aneela Hayder; Omid Norouzi; Sonu Sharma; Rafael Santos; Animesh Dutta

doi:10.1016/j.chemosphere.2024.141864

A novel approach for the facile synthesis of zinc oxide/carbon hybrid systems from corn distillers soluble: Surface modification and characterization for sustainable remediation

Chemosphere. 2024 Apr 6:357:141864. doi: 10.1016/j.chemosphere.2024.141864. Online ahead of print.

Authors

Aneela Hayder¹, Omid Norouzi¹, Sonu Sharma¹, Rafael Santos¹, Animesh Dutta²

Affiliations

¹ School of Engineering, University of Guelph, Guelph, ON, N1G 2W1, Canada.
² School of Engineering, University of Guelph, Guelph, ON, N1G 2W1, Canada. Electronic address: adutta@uoguelph.ca.

PMID: 38588901
DOI: 10.1016/j.chemosphere.2024.141864

Abstract

Sustainable, efficient, and environmentally friendly ways to tailor the carbonaceous materials from bio sources with desired functionalities remain a challenge around the world. In this study, we represent a novel approach to synthesize carbon hybrid material based on Zinc Oxide/carbon (ZnO/C) hybrid systems by catalytic hydrothermal process via crosslinking reaction through nucleation and growth of ZnO particles at the functional groups of oxidized carbon material. This research explored the volarization of Condensed Corn Distillers Soluble (CDS) as a carbon precursor to synthesize biobased carbon spheres. Surface modification of the produced carbon spheres took place using zinc chloride (ZnCl₂) during hydrothermal carbonization (HTC). Zinc chloride (ZnCl₂) was used to function as a catalyst during HTC and functioned as a ZnO source to synthesize (ZnO/C) hybrid systems. Design Expert software v13 was used to design the hydrothermal carbonization (HTC) experiments and response surface methodology was used to find the optimized conditions for the preparation of carbon hybrid systems. The hydrothermal synthesis process introduced 3D stone like zinc oxide particles onto the carbon matrix. These particles were self-assembled onto the carbon framework to produce carbon hybrid systems with unique physical, chemical, structural and functional properties. Herein, the obtained carbon hybrid systems (ZnO/C) were investigated and discussed in detail. ZnO/C hybrid systems were analyzed for surface morphology using scanning electron microscopy (SEM) that presented a 3D spherical interconnected phase and XRD analyses were used for phase crystallinity that showed new crystalline phases such as hopeite and zincite after the ZnCl₂ incorporation. Surface functional groups were also analyzed by FTIR and results confirmed the presence of hydrophilic groups such as -OH, CC, and COOH on the surface of ZnO/C hybrid carbon systems. This study provided the insightful guidance for tailoring novel design of multifunctional carbon material as an adsorbent/catalyst for various applications of sustainable remediation.