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Advanced Carbon Materials in Water Treatment or Separations Technology

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A special issue of Materials (ISSN 1996-1944). This special issue belongs to the section "Carbon Materials".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 November 2021) | Viewed by 16057

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Dr. Christopher J. Arnusch

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Guest Editor

Senior Lecturer, Ben Gurion University
Interests: water treatment; laser-induced graphene; polymer membrane fabrication and modification; 2D and 3D printing techniques; antimicrobial peptides

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Water purification technology benefits from the development and discovery of advanced materials. Importantly, various forms of carbon have been applied for advanced treatment techniques, for example, as highly effective adsorbents or electrodes. However, more recently, many other forms of carbon have been incorporated in water treatment technology, especially polymer membranes. For example, graphene and its various forms (carbon nanotubes, graphene oxide, and reduced graphene oxide) have been incorporated into composites or as coatings to achieve advanced materials in water treatment. For example, these materials can be used for advanced separations of solutes from solvents or to impart useful or unique properties to porous or dense membrane surfaces. The main focus of the forthcoming Special Issue is thus to present various examples of how advanced carbon materials can be applied in water treatment in order to give the reader an overview of the state of the art. The topics covered in the Special Issue include various advanced carbon materials applied to water treatment or separations technology.

Dr. Christopher J. Arnusch
Guest Editor

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Keywords

water treatment
carbon
graphene
carbon nanotubes
graphene oxide
membranes
adsorbents

Published Papers (5 papers)

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Research

11 pages, 5276 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Virus Inactivation in Water Using Laser-Induced Graphene Filters

by Najmul Haque Barbhuiya, Swatantra P. Singh, Arik Makovitzki, Pradnya Narkhede, Ziv Oren, Yaakov Adar, Edith Lupu, Lilach Cherry, Arik Monash and Christopher J. Arnusch

Materials 2021, 14(12), 3179; https://doi.org/10.3390/ma14123179 - 9 Jun 2021

Cited by 27 | Viewed by 3647

Abstract

Interest in the pathogenesis, detection, and prevention of viral infections has increased broadly in many fields of research over the past year. The development of water treatment technology to combat viral infection by inactivation or disinfection might play a key role in infection prevention in places where drinking water sources are biologically contaminated. Laser-induced graphene (LIG) has antimicrobial and antifouling surface effects mainly because of its electrochemical properties and texture, and LIG-based water filters have been used for the inactivation of bacteria. However, the antiviral activity of LIG-based filters has not yet been explored. Here we show that LIG filters also have antiviral effects by applying electrical potential during filtration of the model prototypic poxvirus Vaccinia lister. This antiviral activity of the LIG filters was compared with its antibacterial activity, which showed that higher voltages were required for the inactivation of viruses compared to that of bacteria. The generation of reactive oxygen species, along with surface electrical effects, played a role in the mechanism of virus inactivation. This new property of LIG highlights its potential for use in water and wastewater treatment for the electrochemical disinfection of various pathogenic microorganisms, including bacteria and viruses. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advanced Carbon Materials in Water Treatment or Separations Technology)

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19 pages, 5942 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Synthesis and Adsorption Properties of Novel Bacterial Cellulose/Graphene Oxide/Attapulgite Materials for Cu and Pb Ions in Aqueous Solutions

by Shen Song, Zhao Liu, Ji Zhang, Caizhen Jiao, Ling Ding and Shengrong Yang

Materials 2020, 13(17), 3703; https://doi.org/10.3390/ma13173703 - 21 Aug 2020

Cited by 40 | Viewed by 2911

Abstract

Removing heavy metal ions from industrial wastewater is one of the most important and difficult areas of the water treatment industry. In this study, Bacterial Cellulose/Polyvinyl Alcohol/Graphene Oxide/Attapulgite (BC/PVA/GO/APT) composites were successfully prepared via a repeated freeze-thaw method using bacterial cellulose, polyvinyl alcohol as the skeleton, and graphene oxide, attapulgite as fillers. The capacities of adsorbing Cu²⁺ and Pb²⁺ ions in solution were investigated. FTIR, XRD, SEM, BET, and TG-DSC analyses showed that the BC/PVA/GO/APT hydrogel has a better hydrophilicity, a larger specific surface area and a better thermal stability than traditional materials. We found that the adsorption of Cu²⁺and Pb²⁺ ions can be accurately predicted by the Freundlich kinetic model, and the optimal adsorption capacities of these ions were found to be 150.79 mg/g and 217.8 mg/g respectively. Thermodynamic results showed that the adsorption process is spontaneous and exothermic. BC/PVA/GO/APT composites are suggested to be an ideal adsorption material for removing heavy metal ions from industrial wastewater. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advanced Carbon Materials in Water Treatment or Separations Technology)

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22 pages, 5758 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Enhanced Ibuprofen Adsorption and Desorption on Synthesized Functionalized Magnetic Multiwall Carbon Nanotubes from Aqueous Solution

by Ghadir Hanbali, Shehdeh Jodeh, Othman Hamed, Roland Bol, Bayan Khalaf, Asma Qdemat and Subhi Samhan

Materials 2020, 13(15), 3329; https://doi.org/10.3390/ma13153329 - 27 Jul 2020

Cited by 50 | Viewed by 3345

Abstract

In recent years, concerns have been raised about the occurrence of active raw materials and pharmaceutical ingredients that may be present in water, including wastewater, in the pharmaceutical industry. Wastewater treatment methods are not enough to completely remove active pharmaceuticals and other waste; thus, this study aims to assess the use of a multiwall carbon nanotube after derivatization and magnetization as a new and renewable absorbent for removing ibuprofen from an aqueous medium. The adsorbents were prepared by first oxidizing a multiwall carbon nanotube and then deriving the oxidized product with hydroxyl amine (m-MWCNT–HA), hydrazine (m-MWCNT–HYD), and amino acid (m-MWCNT–CYS). Adsorbents were characterized by Raman spectroscopy, Fourier Transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), scanning electron microscopy (SEM and TEM), Brunauer–Emmett–Teller surface area analysis (BET), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), and vibrating sample magnetometer (VSM). Batch adsorption studies were conducted to study the effects of pH, temperature, time, and initial concentration of the adsorbate. Adsorption isotherm, kinetics, and thermodynamics studies were also conducted. The results show that the optimal pH for nearly complete removal of Ibu in a short time at room temperature was 4 for three adsorbents. The adsorption followed the Langmuir isotherm model with pseudo-second-order kinetics. The percentage of removal of ibuprofen reached up to 98.4%, 93%, and 61.5% for m-MWCNT–CYS, m-MWCNT–HYD, and m-MWCNT–HA respectively. To the best of our knowledge, the grafted MWCNTs presented in this work comprise the first example in the literature of oxidized MWCNT modified with such functionalities and applied for ibuprofen removal. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advanced Carbon Materials in Water Treatment or Separations Technology)

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14 pages, 1786 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Ecofriendly Approach for Treatment of Heavy-Metal-Contaminated Water Using Activated Carbon of Kernel Shell of Oil Palm

by Rabia Baby and Mohd Zobir Hussein

Materials 2020, 13(11), 2627; https://doi.org/10.3390/ma13112627 - 9 Jun 2020

Cited by 20 | Viewed by 2890

Abstract

Heavy metal ion contamination in water poses a significant risk to human health as well as to the environment. Millions of tons of agricultural wastes are produced from oil palm plantations which are challenging to manage. In this study, we converted palm kernel shells (PKS) from a palm oil plantation into activated carbon (AC) having a surface area of 1099 m²/g using phosphoric acid as an activator. The prepared material was characterized using BET, XRD, Raman, FESEM and FTIR analyses. The AC was applied for the treatment of heavy-metal-contaminated water, and different parameters; the pH, adsorbent dosage, contact time and metal ion concentrations were varied to determine the optimal conditions for the metal ion adsorption. Different kinetic models; the zeroth, first-order and second-order, and Freundlich and Langmuir isotherm models were used to determine the mechanism of metal ion adsorption by the AC. Under the optimized conditions, Cr⁶⁺ and Pb²⁺ were removed completely, while Zn²⁺ and Cd²⁺ were more than 80% removed. This is a greener approach in which an agricultural waste, PKS is converted into a useful product, activated carbon and subsequently applied for the treatment of heavy metal-contaminated water. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advanced Carbon Materials in Water Treatment or Separations Technology)

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14 pages, 3049 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Dynamic Adsorption of Sulfamethoxazole from Aqueous Solution by Lignite Activated Coke

by Haiyan Li, Juan He, Kaiyu Chen, Zhou Shi, Mengnan Li, Pengpeng Guo and Liyuan Wu

Materials 2020, 13(7), 1785; https://doi.org/10.3390/ma13071785 - 10 Apr 2020

Cited by 11 | Viewed by 2611

Abstract

In this paper, lignite activated coke was used as adsorbent for dynamic column adsorption experiments to remove sulfamethoxazole from aqueous solution. The effects of column height, flow rate, initial concentration, pH and humic acids concentration on the dynamic adsorption penetration curve and mass transfer zone length were investigated. Results showed penetration time would be prolonged significantly by increasing column height, while inhibited by the increasement of initial concentration and flow rate. Thomas and Yoon-Nelson model and the Adams-Bohart model were used to elucidate the adsorption mechanism, high coefficients of R² > 0.95 were obtained in Thomas model for most of the adsorption entries, which revealed that the adsorption rate could probably be dominated by mass transfer at the interface. The average change rates of mass transfer zone length to the changes of each parameters, such as initial concentration, the column height, the flow rate and pH, were 0.0003, 0.6474, 0.0076, 0.0073 and 0.0191 respectively, revealed that column height may play a vital role in dynamic column adsorption efficiency. These findings suggested that lignite activated coke can effectively remove sulfamethoxazole contaminants from wastewater in practice. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advanced Carbon Materials in Water Treatment or Separations Technology)

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