The Adsorption Performance of Porous Activated Carbons Prepared from Iron (II) Precursors Precipitated on the Porous Carbon Matrix Thermolysis

The creation of new compounds featuring high adsorption and catalytic performance with magnetic properties of the material is one of the important fields of magnetochemistry. The typical synthetic schemes of magnetic carbonaceous adsorbents are rather complicated due to the use of inert atmosphere and difficult wet methods of magnetite precipitation. The arising experimental issues prevent industrial production of magnetically activated carbons. In order to overcome these obstacles, we suggested a novel approach to porous carbons: magnetite composite synthesis based on iron (II) salt precipitation on porous carbon and subsequent thermolysis. We facilitated the process at the stage of the material washing. The synthetic route used is simple and can be applied industrially. The present paper is focused on the adsorption performance of a product prepared from commercial activated carbons BAU-A and AG-3. The porous structure was studied with low-temperature nitrogen adsorption that revealed surface area decreased by 26% in the case of BAU-A and 40% in the case of AG-3 with an increase in mesopore volume. Phenol and nitrobenzene adsorption from water solution was tested with magnetic carbon prepared from BAU-A. The adsorption isotherms obtained are described well using the Langmuir model. The limiting adsorption value in the case of magnetic porous carbon is lower than in the case of pristine carbon. The relative decrease in limiting adsorption value is close to the relative decrease in the specific surface area. The adsorption constant remains the same, showing that adsorption centers of phenol and nitrobenzene are the same for porous magnetic carbon and its activated carbon precursor. Thus, we showed in the present study that the magnetically activated carbons we developed almost retain the adsorption performance of their activated carbon precursors.