Manufacture of activated carbons using Egyptian wood resources and its application in oligothiophene dye adsorption
Anna Ilnicka, Piotr Kamedulski, Hesham M. Aly, Jerzy P. Łukaszewicz
Abstract
The following paper presents research on the conversion of wood wastes accessible in Egypt into activated carbon. In this study, wood samples of four Egyptian tree species were used: Delonix regia, Leucaena leucocephala, Salix mucronata, and Tipuana tipu. The wood scraps were soaked in a KOH solution and then carbonized at 600 °C under the flow of nitrogen; the resulting materials were analyzed by means of microscopic and spectroscopic techniques, low-temperature adsorption of nitrogen, and an investigation of the surface area using nitrogen sorption. The addition of a chemical activator facilitated an increase of the surface area up to 603 m2 g−1. In its second part, the work aims to experimentally confirm that synthesizing hybrid materials consisting of oligothiophene dye (OT) and the obtained activated carbon may contribute to improving the applicability of these carbons as dye adsorbents. Confocal microscopy, Raman spectra, and SEM-EDX microscopy were used to confirm the immobilization of oligomers on the surface of carbon hybrid materials. Confocal microscopy in particular is considered to be an appropriate technique of detecting the presence of adsorbed 6 T molecules on the carbon surface. The presented research is a major step towards the application of modified carbons as an attractive and inexpensive base for dye molecule adsorption.