Tailoring Properties of Resol Resin-Derived Spherical Carbons for Adsorption of Phenol from Aqueous Solution

Abstract

The polycondensation of resorcinol and formaldehyde in a water–ethanol mixture using the adapted Stöber method was used to obtain resol resins. An optimization of synthesis conditions and the use of an appropriate stabilizer (e.g., poly(vinyl alcohol)) resulted in spherical grains. The resins were carbonized in the temperature range of 600–1050 °C and then chemically activated in an aqueous HNO3 solution, gaseous ammonia, or by an oxidation–reduction cycle (soaking in a HNO3 solution followed by treatment with NH3). The obtained carbons were characterized by XRD, the low-temperature adsorption of nitrogen, SEM, TGA, and XPS in order to determine degree of graphitization, porosity, shape and size of particles, and surface composition, respectively. Finally, the materials were tested in phenol adsorption. The pseudo-second order model perfectly described the adsorption kinetics. A clear correlation between the micropore volume and the adsorption capacity was found. The content of graphite domains also had a positive effect on the adsorption properties. On the other hand, the presence of heteroatoms, especially oxygen groups, resulted in the clogging of the pores and a decrease in the amount of adsorbed phenol.

Effect of Nickel as Stress Factor on Phenol Biodegradation by Stenotrophomonas maltophilia KB2

“…The production facilities in these industries very often have to deal with the presence of phenol in their wastewaters, at concentrations ranging from 1 to 7000 mg•L −1 [7]. Among the various types of effective phenol removal technologies, biological decomposition of hazardous substances attract attention with their effectiveness and low economic costs [8][9][10][11][12][13]. Despite being toxic, phenol can be utilized by microbes as carbon and energy sources [8,[14][15][16][17].…”

Enhanced rate performance of lithium-ion battery anodes using a cobalt-incorporated carbon conductive agent

“…S2c† indicates the presence of organic species: CO (532 eV) and C–O (533.7 eV). 30–32 The peak observed at 537.5 eV was attributed to the remaining H 2 O within the sample. Compared with Co-ox-KJB (Fig.…”

Effect of Nitrogen Functional Groups on Competitive Adsorption Between Toluene and Water Vapor Onto Activated Carbon

“…To study the detailed N composition, the high-resolution XPS spectra of N 1s (Fig. 4b) were resolved into three peaks at about 401.5, 400.2 and 398.6 eV, assigned to graphitic N, pyrrolic N and pyridinic N, respectively (Sidor et al 2021). The relative content of N species is illustrated in Table 2.…”