Study of 2,4-D adsorption on activated carbon functionalized with copper, silver and iron
摘要
Removing organic pollutants such as herbicides from wastewater is a significant environmental challenge. In this study, five granular activated carbons from Jacobi® Carbons including two containing copper (BCC and AM80), one containing silver (S35-S5) and two raw activated carbons without metal (L27 and AS500) were investigated for adsorption in water contaminated by 2,4-D. L27 and AS5000 were functionalized with iron to understand the role of the metal in the adsorption process and to compare their adsorption capacity with the other materials. The activated carbons were characterized by different techniques to determine their textural properties (nitrogen adsorption at 77 K), structure and morphology (SEM–EDX and TEM–EDX), and surface chemistry (FTIR and XPS). In order to determine the efficiency of the five activated carbons according to the nature of their surface functions and their textural properties, adsorption kinetics and isotherms were carried out to understand the adsorption mechanisms. Grafting iron onto L27 increased the adsorption capacity of L27 by 23.5%. This increase is due to adsorption in the porosity coupled with interactions between the iron and the molecule to be adsorbed, which compensates for the loss of porosity due to grafting.