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Green Activated Carbons
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Green Activated Carbons

A special issue of Materials (ISSN 1996-1944).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 March 2018) | Viewed by 18993

Special Issue Editor

Prof. Dr. George Z. Kyzas

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Guest Editor
Department of Chemistry, International Hellenic University, 65404 Kavala, Greece
Interests: water and wastewater treatment; nanomaterials; graphene; microplastics; photocatalysts; heavy metals; polymeric adsorbents
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Activated carbons are considered to be the most successful adsorbent materials due to their high adsorption capacity for the majority of pollutants (dyes, heavy metals, pharmaceuticals, phenols, etc.). They possess large surface areas, and different surface functional groups, which include carboxyl, carbonyl, phenol, quinone, lactone, and other groups, bound to the edges of the graphite-like layers. Therefore, they are regarded as good adsorbents, both in liquid and gas phases. The most widely-used carbonaceous materials for the industrial production of activated carbons are coal, wood, and coconut shell. These types of precursors are quite expensive and often imported, in many places; hence making it necessary, particularly for developing countries, to find a cheap and available feedstock for the preparation of activated carbon for use in industry, drinking water purification and wastewater treatment. In order to reduce the synthesis cost of activated carbons, some green final products are recently proposed, using several suitable agricultural by-products (lignocellulosics)—i.e., including olive-waste cakes, cattle-manure compost, bamboo materials, apple pulp, potato peel—as activated carbon precursors. In this Special Issue, special attention is given to those activated carbons (synthesis, and adsorption applications) which can be characterized as “green” because their origin and green environmental-friendly sources. For example, agricultural wastes can be used as origin for the preparation of carbons etc. Furthermore, the application of activated carbons cannot be only adsorption in liquid- or gas-phase (metals, dyes, CO2, NOx, etc.), and also other proposed applications.

Dr. George Z. Kyzas
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

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Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Materials is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • Activated carbons
  • Agricultural wastes
  • Adsorption
  • Synthesis
  • Various applications.

Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

19 pages, 10521 KiB  
Article
Factors Influencing NO2 Adsorption/Reduction on Microporous Activated Carbon: Porosity vs. Surface Chemistry
by Imen Ghouma, Mejdi Jeguirim, Lionel Limousy, Najoua Bader, Abdelmottaleb Ouederni and Simona Bennici
Materials 2018, 11(4), 622; https://doi.org/10.3390/ma11040622 - 18 Apr 2018
Cited by 17 | Viewed by 4901
Abstract
The textural properties and surface chemistry of different activated carbons, prepared by the chemical activation of olive stones, have been investigated in order to gain insight on the NO2 adsorption mechanism. The parent chemical activated carbon was prepared by the impregnation of [...] Read more.
The textural properties and surface chemistry of different activated carbons, prepared by the chemical activation of olive stones, have been investigated in order to gain insight on the NO2 adsorption mechanism. The parent chemical activated carbon was prepared by the impregnation of olive stones in phosphoric acid followed by thermal carbonization. Then, the textural properties and surface chemistry were modified by chemical treatments including nitric acid, sodium hydroxide and/or a thermal treatment at 900 °C. The main properties of the parent and modified activated carbons were analyzed by N2-adsorption, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) techniques, in order to enlighten the modifications issued from the chemical and thermal treatments. The NO2 adsorption capacities of the different activated carbons were measured in fixed bed experiments under 500 ppmv NO2 concentrations at room temperature. Temperature programmed desorption (TPD) was applied after adsorption tests in order to quantify the amount of the physisorbed and chemisorbed NO2. The obtained results showed that the development of microporosity, the presence of oxygen-free sites, and the presence of basic surface groups are key factors for the efficient adsorption of NO2. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Green Activated Carbons)
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12 pages, 4147 KiB  
Article
Reduction and Removal of Chromium VI in Water by Powdered Activated Carbon
by Yanan Chen, Dong An, Sainan Sun, Jiayi Gao and Linping Qian
Materials 2018, 11(2), 269; https://doi.org/10.3390/ma11020269 - 09 Feb 2018
Cited by 115 | Viewed by 7584
Abstract
Cr adsorption on wood-based powdered activated carbon (WPAC) was characterized by scanning electron microscopy coupled with energy dispersive spectroscopy (SEM-EDS), Raman spectroscopy, and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). The highest Cr(VI) adsorption (40.04%) was obtained under acidic conditions (pH 3), whereas Cr removal at [...] Read more.
Cr adsorption on wood-based powdered activated carbon (WPAC) was characterized by scanning electron microscopy coupled with energy dispersive spectroscopy (SEM-EDS), Raman spectroscopy, and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). The highest Cr(VI) adsorption (40.04%) was obtained under acidic conditions (pH 3), whereas Cr removal at pH 10 was only 0.34%. The mechanism of Cr(VI) removal from aqueous solutions by WPAC was based on the reduction of Cr(VI) to Cr(III) with the concomitant oxidation of C-H and C-OH to C-OH and C=O, respectively, on the surface of WPAC, followed by Cr(III) adsorption. Raman spectroscopy revealed a change in the WPAC structure in terms of the D/G band intensity ratio after Cr(VI) adsorption. SEM-EDS analysis showed that the oxygen/carbon ratio on the WPAC surface increased from 9.85% to 17.74%. This result was confirmed by XPS measurements, which showed that 78.8% of Cr adsorbed on the WPAC surface was in the trivalent state. The amount of oxygen-containing functional groups on the surface increased due to the oxidation of graphitic carbons to C-OH and C=O groups. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Green Activated Carbons)
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2344 KiB  
Article
Nitrogen-Doped Carbon Nanoparticles for Oxygen Reduction Prepared via a Crushing Method Involving a High Shear Mixer
by Lei Shi, Tao Wu, Yiqing Wang, Jie Zhang, Gang Wang, Jinli Zhang, Bin Dai and Feng Yu
Materials 2017, 10(9), 1030; https://doi.org/10.3390/ma10091030 - 04 Sep 2017
Cited by 18 | Viewed by 5581
Abstract
The disposal of agricultural wastes such as fresh banana peels (BPs) is an environmental issue. In this work, fresh BPs were successfully transformed into nitrogen-doped carbon nanoparticles (N-CNPs) by using a high shear mixer facilitated crushing method (HSM-FCM) followed by carbonization under Ar [...] Read more.
The disposal of agricultural wastes such as fresh banana peels (BPs) is an environmental issue. In this work, fresh BPs were successfully transformed into nitrogen-doped carbon nanoparticles (N-CNPs) by using a high shear mixer facilitated crushing method (HSM-FCM) followed by carbonization under Ar atmosphere. Ammonia-activated N-CNPs (N-CNPs-NH3) were prepared via subsequent ammonia activation treatments at a high temperature. The as-prepared N-CNPs and N-CNPs-NH3 materials both exhibited high surface areas (above 700 m2/g) and mean particle size of 50 nm. N-CNPs-NH3 showed a relatively higher content of pyridinic and graphitic N compared to N-CNPs. In alkaline media, N-CNPs-NH3 showed superior performances as an oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) catalyst (E0 = −0.033 V, J = 2.4 mA/cm2) compared to N-CNPs (E0 = 0.07 V, J = 1.8 mA/cm2). In addition, N-CNPs-NH3 showed greater oxygen reduction stability and superior methanol crossover avoidance than a conventional Pt/C catalyst. This study provides a novel, simple, and scalable approach to valorize biomass wastes by synthesizing highly efficient electrochemical ORR catalysts. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Green Activated Carbons)
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