Bamboo charcoal fused with polyurethane foam for efficiently removing organic solvents from wastewater: experimental and simulation

• DOI: 10.1007/s42773-022-00153-2
• Publication Date: 2022-05-24T04:04:16Z
• Authors: Zeyu Wang; Liyong Hu; Min Zhao; Luyao Dai; Dzmitry Hrynsphan; Savitskaya Tatsiana; Jun Chen
• Keywords: Reusability; Polyurethane; S; Agriculture; ЭБ БГУ::ТЕХНИЧЕСКИЕ И ПРИКЛАДНЫЕ НАУКИ. ОТРАСЛИ ЭКОНОМИКИ::Водное хозяйство; 02 engineering and technology; Bamboo charcoal; 6. Clean water; Environmental sciences; Organic solvent; GE1-350; Adsorption; ЭБ БГУ::ЕСТЕСТВЕННЫЕ И ТОЧНЫЕ НАУКИ::Химия; 0210 nano-technology

AbstractThe development of a multifunctional oil adsorbing material which could effectively and quickly separate oily wastewater is one of the focuses in water environment restoration. In this study, bamboo charcoal (BC) was used as an improver to modify polyurethane (PU) foam. The results of scanning electron microscope (SEM) and Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) revealed that the addition of BC could effectively improve the mechanical properties of PU. The adsorption data exhibited that the BC-loaded PU (BC/PU) foam composites effectively removed seven organic solvents (OSs, including octane, petroleum ether, soybean oil, chlorobenzene, 1,2-dichloroethane, n-hexane, cyclohexane), and the maximum adsorption capacity of BC/PU was 23.6 g g−1when BC content was 5%. The order of pseudo-second-order kinetic constants and maximum adsorption capacity of seven OSs was octane < petroleum ether < soybean oil < chlorobenzene < 1, 2-dichloroethane < cyclohexane < n-hexane. Based on the experimental data and density functional theory (DFT) simulation, the adsorption mechanism of OSs on BC/PU-5 was discussed. The EHOMOand μ of OSs calculated by DFT were highly correlated with absorption affinity (K2, Qeand Qmax). Hence, the contribution of OSs to the adsorption efficiency of BC/PU-5 may be mainly due to electron donor–acceptor (EDA) interaction and non-hydrophobic interaction. In addition, the adsorption capacity did not change significantly after repeated recycling 5 times. Overall, the prepared BC/PU foam composites could be used as a potential candidate for separating OSs in engineering applications.Graphical Abstract