Preparation of novel activated carbons from H2SO4-pretreated corncob hulls with KOH activation for quick adsorption of dye and 4-chlorophenol.

Corncob hull was immersed in 25 wt% H(2)SO(4) and was carbonized in an oven at 290 °C for 2h to obtain the char. The char was then activated for 1h at 780 °C by KOH at weight ratio of KOH/char of 2.5, 3.0, and 3.5. SEM photos of the carbons revealed that the cell wall of corncob hull was etched into thin film structure. It was shown that the adsorption isotherms of methylene blue and 4-chlorophenol on the carbons were well fitted by the Langmuir equation. Moreover, the adsorption kinetics could be satisfactorily described by the Elovich equation. The normalized standard deviations are less than 2.8%. The high fraction of adsorption amount adsorbed within 1 min to that at saturation demonstrated the advantage of the prepared activated carbons. The fraction of adsorption amount within 1 min to that at saturation (q(1)/q(mon)) for the adsorption of 4-CP is high up to 0.807. Such quick adsorption behavior was mainly attributed to the presence of the thin film structure of carbons.

Preparation of activated carbons from unburnt coal in bottom ash with KOH activation for liquid-phase adsorption.

In this work, unburnt coal (UC) in bottom ash from coal-fired power plants was soaked in KOH solution and activated for 1 h at 780 degrees C. The yield of activated carbons varied from 47.8 to 54.8% when the KOH/UC weight ratio changed from 2 to 4. Pore properties of these activated carbons including the BET surface area, pore volume, pore size distribution, and pore diameter were characterized based on N(2) adsorption isotherms. It was shown that the isotherms for the adsorption of methylene blue, acid blue 74, and 4-chlorophenol from aqueous solutions on these activated carbons at 30 degrees C were well fitted by the Langmuir equation (correlation coefficient r(2) > 0.9968). The adsorption capacities of methylene blue, acid blue 74, and 4-chlorophenol were obtained to be 2.40-2.88, 0.57-1.29, and 2.34-5.62 mmol/g, respectively. Moreover, the adsorption kinetics could be suitably described by the Elovich equation.