One-pot synthesis of carbon nanospheres with high nitrogen content for cation removal from wastewater

Abstract

Abstract Different carbon materials, such as activated carbon and carbon aerogel, are used widely as adsorbents due to their high surface area. Carbon nanospheres (CNS), a nanometric form of carbon, are commonly used in drug delivery, heterogeneous catalysis, and encapsulation of catalysts. However, these properties sill can be improved by N doping. On the other hand, heavy metal ions are considered one of the most toxic aquatic pollutants, and their removal is a current line of research. Thus, the objective of the present study was to reduce the diameters of CNS, augment nitrogen content using different strategies, and assess the adsorption capacities of the newly synthesized CNS. In this work, 3 nitrogen-dopped CNS materials were synthesized via one-pot sol-gel synthesis their morphology and chemical composition were evaluated, and adsorption capacities were investigated with the batch adsorption method. The obtained results show that the particles´ size of the spheres can be reduced by producing steric impediment for nucleation or by cross-linking agent addition. Additionally, newly synthesized materials showed increased capacity for Pb adsorption, which may present an advantage for their industrial application.