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Coal based magnetic activated carbon as a high performance adsorbent for methylene blue

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Abstract

Coal based magnetic activated carbons (MACs) were prepared by using the two-stage carbonization and activation of coal in the presence of Fe2O3 as the magnetic source. Compared with the single-stage carbonization and activation, the two-stage temperature method was found to be efficient for the preparation of MACs with the high specific surface area and good magnetic properties in a lower alkali/carbon ratio. The as-synthesized MACs at optimized conditions exhibited specific surface areas of up to 2075 m2/g and optimal saturation magnetization of as high as 15.02 emu/g. Moreover, as an adsorbent, the efficiency of removing methylene blue (MB) from aqueous solutions is excellent. Based on MB adsorption behaviors at various conditions, including initial dye concentration, contact time and temperature, MACs prepared at optimized conditions exhibited a maximum equilibrium MB adsorption capacity of 871 mg/g. The data of adsorption kinetics and isotherms could be well fitted by using the pseudo-second-order equation and the Freundlich model. Importantly, MACs can be separated and recovered easily by applying a magnetic field. Therefore, the coal-based magnetic activated carbons might be a promising candidate of high efficiency, low cost for removal of organic dyes.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the excellent Youth Fund of Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region of China (2014721005), the Opened Fund of the Key Laboratory of Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region of China (2015KL010), the Joint Funds of NSFC- Xinjiang of China (U1303391), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (21362037), the Program for Changjiang Scholars and Innovative Research Team in the University of Ministry of Education of China (IRT1081).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Xinjiang University, Urumqi, 830046, Xinjiang, China

    Shasha Gao, Lang Liu, Yakun Tang & Yaya Wang

  2. Key Laboratory of Energy Materials Chemistry, Ministry of Education, Institute of Applied Chemistry, Xinjiang University, Urumqi, 830046, Xinjiang, China

    Shasha Gao, Lang Liu, Yakun Tang, Dianzeng Jia & Yaya Wang

  3. Carbon Research Laboratory, State Key Lab of Fine Chemicals, School of Chemical Engineering, Dalian University of Technology, Dalian, 116023, China

    Zongbin Zhao

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  1. Shasha Gao
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  2. Lang Liu
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Correspondence to Lang Liu.

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Gao, S., Liu, L., Tang, Y. et al. Coal based magnetic activated carbon as a high performance adsorbent for methylene blue. J Porous Mater 23, 877–884 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10934-016-0144-9

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