Nanoporous Carbon Materials toward Phenolic Compounds Adsorption

Abstract

Nanoporous carbon-based sorbents are used to generate a three-dimensional real-space model of the nanoporous structure using the concept of Gaussian random fields. This pore model is used to derive important pore size characteristics, which are cross-validated against the corresponding values from gas sorption analysis. After filling the model pore structure with an aqueous electrolyte and rearranging the ions via a Monte Carlo simulation for different applied adsorption potentials. In comparison to nanopores formed from solid-state membranes (e.g., silicon oxide, aluminum oxide, polymer membranes, glass, hafnium oxide, gold, etc.) and very recently 2D materials (e.g., boron nitride, molybdenum disulfide, etc.), those nanopores produced from carbon materials (e.g., graphene, carbon nanotubes (CNTs), diamond, etc.), especially those from graphene appear to be perfect for adsorption process. The thickness of carbon structures nanopores can be as thin as 0.35 nm, resembling the height of the base spacing. Moreover, the sizes of carbon structures nanopores can be precisely fabricated and tuned to around 1.0 nm, the similar size of many heavy metals and organic pollutants molecules. Furthermore, carbon materials are chemically stable and feature-rich surface chemistry. Therefore, various carbon nanopore sequencing techniques have been developed. Finally, in this chapter the adsorption of phenolic compounds on nanoporous carbon specifically the active carbon are overviewed and how to affect the heterogeneity of activated carbon surface, PH of the solution on the efficiency of adsorption.