PNNL

Abstract

The rapid growth in CO2 emission and dye discharge due to industrialization demands efficient and low-cost technology development using the sorbent approach especially activated carbons. This work reports an efficient method for facile synthesis of hierarchically porous carbon by chemical carbonization followed by N2 activation utilizing low cost and easy available wheat bran (WB). Here obtained activated carbon (WB-AC) explored potentially for CO2 capture (2.47 mmol g-1), which exhibits high Henry’s Law CO2/N2 selectivity (40.10) along with isosteric heat of adsorption in the range (27.35 to 29.90 kJ mol-1). Furthermore, the WB-AC reveals the fast removal of methyl orange (MO) dye with a capacity of ~555 mg g-1 calculated by the Langmuir model to express the adsorption mechanism. The large specific surface area (757.69 m2 g-1) and total pore volume (0.3696 cm3 g-1) results from N2 activation, which develops hierarchical pores contributing to selective CO2 uptake with high and fast removal capacity of dye. The superior CO2 capture and dye removal properties suggest the use of agro-waste-derived WB-AC as a high-value product for energy and environmental applications.