Structured carbon foam derived from waste biomass: application to endocrine disruptor adsorption

• DOI: 10.1007/s11356-019-06302-8
• Publication Date: 2019-10-19T17:11:46Z
• Authors: Mohamed Zbair; Satu Ojala; Hamza Khallok; Kaisu Ainassaari; Zouhair El Assal; Zineb Hatim; Riitta L. Keiski; Mohamed Bensitel; Rachid Brahmi
• Keywords: Biomass (ecology); Biomedical Engineering; Organic chemistry; Endocrine Disruptors; Nanoscale Zero-Valent Iron Applications and Remediation; FOS: Medical engineering; Ecotoxicology; Biochemistry; 01 natural sciences; Environmental science; Water Purification; Bisphenol A; Engineering; Phenols; FOS: Chemical sciences; Endocrine system; Regeneration; Biomass; Benzhydryl Compounds; Waste management; Biology; Water Science and Technology; 0105 earth and related environmental sciences; Water purification; Ecology; Organic Chemistry; Adsorption of Water Contaminants; Catalytic Reduction of Nitro Compounds; Hormone; Carbon; 6. Clean water; Kinetics; Chemistry; Carbon foam; Endocrine disruptor; FOS: Biological sciences; Environmental Science; Physical Sciences; Environmental chemistry; Thermodynamics; Adsorption; Water Pollutants, Chemical; Research Article

Abstract In this paper, a novel structured carbon foam has been prepared from argan nut shell (ANS) was developed and applied in bisphenol A (BPA) removal from water. The results showed that the prepared carbon foam remove 93% of BPA (60 mg/L). The BPA equilibrium data obeyed the Liu isotherm, displaying a maximum uptake capacity of 323.0 mg/g at 20 °C. The calculated free enthalpy change (∆H° = − 4.8 kJ/mol) indicated the existence of physical adsorption between BPA and carbon foam. Avrami kinetic model was able to explain the experimental results. From the regeneration tests, we conclude that the prepared carbon foam has a good potential to be used as an economic and efficient adsorbent for BPA removal from contaminated water. Based on these results and the fact that the developed structured carbon foam is very easy to separate from treated water, it can serve as an interesting material for real water treatment applications.