Saccharide-derived microporous spherical biochar prepared from hydrothermal carbonization and different pyrolysis temperatures: synthesis, characterization, and application in water treatment

ABSTRACT

Three saccharides (glucose, sucrose, and xylose) were used as pure precursors for synthesizing spherical biochars (GB, SB, and XB), respectively. The two-stage synthesis process comprised: (1) the hydrothermal carbonization of saccharides to produce spherical hydrochar’ and (2) pyrolysis of the hydrochar at different temperatures from 300°C to 1200°C. The results demonstrated that the pyrolysis temperatures insignificantly affected the spherical morphology and surface chemistry of biochar. The biochar’ isoelectric point ranged from 2.64 to 3.90 (abundant oxygen-containing functionalities). The Brunauer–Emmett–Teller (BET)-specific surface areas (S_BET) and total pore volumes (V_total) of biochar increased with the increasing pyrolysis temperatures. The highest S_BET and V_total were obtained at a pyrolysis temperature of 900°C for GB (775 m²/g and 0.392 cm³/g), 500°C for SB (410 m²/g and 0.212 cm³/g), and 600°C for XB (426 m²/g and 0.225 cm³/g), respectively. The spherical biochar was a microporous material with approximately 71–98% micropore volume. X-ray diffraction results indicated that the biochar’ structure was predominantly amorphous. The spherical biochar possessed the graphite structure when the pyrolysis temperature was higher than 600°C. The adsorption capacity of GB depended strongly on the pyrolysis temperature. The maximum Langmuir adsorption capacities () of 900GB exhibited the following selective order: phenol (2.332 mmol/g) > Pb²⁺ (1.052 mmol/g) > Cu²⁺ (0.825 mmol/g) > methylene green 5 (0.426 mmol/g) > acid red 1 (0.076 mmol/g). This study provides a simple method to prepare spherical biochar – a new and potential adsorbent for adsorbing heavy metals and aromatic contaminants.

GRAPHICAL ABSTRACT

KEYWORDS:

• Spherical biochar
• saccharide
• pyrolysis temperature
• adsorption
• heavy metal
• aromatic pollutant

Acknowledgements

The first author would like to thank Chung Yuan Christian University for the Distinguished International Graduate Students (DIGS) scholarship to pursue his doctoral studies.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

ORCID

Hai Nguyen Tran http://orcid.org/0000-0001-8361-2616

Tien Vinh Nguyen http://orcid.org/0000-0003-3893-1217

Additional information

Funding

This current work was financially supported by Chung Yuan Christian University (CYCU) in Taiwan.