The role of Vorasurf 504 surfactant in the production of large mesoporous carbon using solvent-free method and its application in the removal of emergent contaminants

Abstract

This work reports using the solvent-free method for the first time in the literature using the surfactant Vorasurf504 (V504) to produce mesoporous carbons (MC). In addition to V504, resorcinol was used as a carbon source, and terephthalaldehyde as a cross-linking agent. Three materials were produced with different proportions of resorcinol: V504, 1:1 (R1V), 1:2 (R2V), and 1:3 (R3V). V504 enabled the production of large mesoporous carbon, mainly for the materials with higher proportions of surfactant. The average pore diameters of the materials varied between 5 and 29 nm, and the mesopore volumes were on the order of 0.922 cm³ g⁻¹. The three produced materials were applied to remove emerging contaminants (EC) with different structural dimensions: paracetamol (PA), atrazine (AT), tenofovir (TF), and ceftriaxone (CF). During the contact test, R2V and R3V showed removals above 90 % for all EC. However, due to its limited mesoporosity, the R1V material had its removal capacity reduced for contaminants of larger structural dimensions. Through kinetic and isotherm studies for systems involving paracetamol and ceftriaxone, it was proven that, in fact, not only the specific surface area but also the pore size and pore volume influence adsorption. As a result of this study, large mesoporous carbon could be produced using a surfactant that has not previously been investigated for the solvent-free method. Furthermore, the materials produced can be used as effective adsorbents for emerging contaminants of various structural dimensions.