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Synthesis of porous carbon from orange peel waste for effective volatile organic compounds adsorption: role of typical components

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Abstract

Volatile organic compounds have posed a serious threat to the environment and human health, which require urgent and effective removal. In recent years, the preparation of porous carbon from biomass waste for volatile organic compounds adsorption has attracted increasing attention as a very cost-effective and promising technology. In this study, porous carbon was synthesized from orange peel by urea-assisted hydrothermal carbonization and KOH activation. The role of typical components (cellulose, hemicellulose, and lignin) in pore development and volatile organic compounds adsorption was investigated. Among the three components, hemicellulose was the major contributor to high porosity and abundant micropores in porous carbon. Higher hemicellulose content led to more abundant −COOR, amine-N, and pyrrolic/pyridonic-N in the derived hydrochar, which were favorable for porosity formation during activation. In this case, the toluene adsorption capacity of the porous carbon improved from 382.8 to 485.3 mg·g−1. Unlike hemicellulose, cellulose reduced the >C=O, amine-N, and pyrrolic/pyridonic-N content of the hydrochar, which caused porosity deterioration and worse toluene adsorption performance. Lignin bestowed the hydrochar with slightly increased −COOR, pyrrolic/pyridonic-N, and graphitic-N, and reduced >C=O, resulting in comparatively poor porosity and more abundant micropores. In general, the obtained porous carbon possessed abundant micropores and high specific surface area, with the highest up to 2882 m2·g−1. This study can provide guidance for selecting suitable biomass waste to synthesize porous carbon with better porosity for efficient volatile organic compounds adsorption.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the Shenzhen Science and Technology Program (Grant No. JSGG20210802154804013). The authors also thank the Analytical and Testing Center of Huazhong University of Science and Technology for testing of the samples.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Energy and Power Engineering, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, 430074, China

    Qiaoyan Zhou, Huan Liu, Kangxin Xiao, Guangyan Yang & Hong Yao

  2. Research Institute of Huazhong University of Science and Technology in Shenzhen, Shenzhen, 518000, China

    Qiaoyan Zhou & Huan Liu

  3. Universtar Science & Technology (Shenzhen) Co., Ltd., Shenzhen, 518057, China

    Yipeng Wang

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  1. Qiaoyan Zhou
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  2. Huan Liu
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Correspondence to Huan Liu.

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Zhou, Q., Liu, H., Wang, Y. et al. Synthesis of porous carbon from orange peel waste for effective volatile organic compounds adsorption: role of typical components. Front. Chem. Sci. Eng. 17, 942–953 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11705-022-2264-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11705-022-2264-x

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