Preparation of novel carbon spheres based on molecular design and adsorption/degradation of methyl orange

Abstract

Novel carbon spheres (GAC-GAC-nZVI) were designed and prepared based on the Kirkendall effect. Granular activated carbon sphere (GAC) was prepared by suspension polymerization, and fabricated into an iron-carbon composite (nZVI-GAC) which was then coated with a carbon shell on the surface (GAC-nZVI-GAC). GAC-GAC-nZVI was prepared using air calcination as the driving force. After GAC-GAC-nZVI treatment of methyl orange (MO) solution, the appearance of sulfamic acid (SA) showed that GAC-GAC-nZVI doubled the role of adsorption and degradation in the process of removing MO. At the same time, compared with GAC(specific surface areas (S_BET): 900.257 m²/g, pore volume (V_tot): 0.447902 cc/g) as well as GAC that was coated with a carbon shell (GAC-GAC) (S_BET: 715.102 m²/g, V_tot: 0.387417 cc/g), the good characterization of GAC-GAC-nZVI (S_BET: 1347.287 m²/g, V_tot: 0.735180 cc/g) results and the high removal rate of MO(99.2% within 100 mins) prove the significance of the work.

Graphical Abstract

Keywords:

• Novel carbon spheres
• Fe–C nanocomposite
• Kirkendall effect

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Natural Science Foundation of China under Grant (number 21604007; number 51474061, number 51704086); the Special Fund for Basic Scientific Research of Central Colleges, Northeastern University under Grant (number N162304010); and Science and technology research projects of Colleges and universities in Hebei province under Grant (number ZD2016207).