• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
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• v.33 no.2
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• pp.133-144
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• 2022

Fast-paced industrial and agricultural development generates large quantities of hazardous heavy metals (HMs), which are extremely damaging to individuals and the environment. Research in both academia and industry has been spurred by the need for HMs to be removed from water bodies. Advanced materials are being developed to replace existing water purification technologies or to introduce cutting-edge solutions that solve challenges such as cost efficacy, easy production, diverse metal removal, and regenerability. Water treatment industries are increasingly interested in activated carbon because of its high adsorption capacity for HMs adsorption. Furthermore, because of its huge surface area, abundant functional groups on surface, and optimal pore diameter, the modified activated carbon has the potential to be used as an efficient adsorbent. Metal-organic frameworks (MOFs), a novel organic-inorganic hybrid porous materials, sparked an interest in the elimination of HMs via adsorption. This is due to the their highly porous nature, large surface area, abundance of exposed adsorptive sites, and post-synthetic modification (PSM) ability. This review introduces PSM methods for MOFs, chemical modification of activated carbons (ACs), and current advancements in the elimination of Pb²⁺, Hg²⁺, and Cd²⁺ ions from water using modified MOFs and ACs via adsorption.

• Journal of Environmental Science International
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• v.17 no.5
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• pp.493-500
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• 2008

This paper describes the adsorption/desorpton efficiency of a modified activated carbon by irradiated microwave to treat toluene. By employing microwave energy, the regeneration time was considerably shortened compared with conventional thermal heating regeneration. New adsorbent called ACB (Activated Carbon-Bentonite) was prepared from powder activated carbon with mixing bentonite as a binder. Specific surface area, average pore size and total pore volume of ACB were calculated from the nitrogen adsorption/desorption isotherm. The surface of ACB was characterized with scanning electron microscope(SEM). The results showed that the specific surface area, total pore volume, average pore size of ABC was not influenced by regenerating cycle with microwave irradiation. Toluene was adsorbed onto ACB which desorbed by MW irradiation. Absorption capacity of ACB was 0.117 $g_{toluene}/g_{ACB}$. Desorption efficiency of toluene increased as higher microwave output was applied.

• Progress in Superconductivity and Cryogenics
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.1-5
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• 2018

Arsenic (As) is one of the elements having most harmful impact on the human health. Arsenic is a known carcinogen and arsenic contamination of drinking water is affecting on humans in many regions of the world. Adsorption has been proved most preferable technique for the removal of arsenic. Many researchers have studied various types of solid materials as arsenic adsorbent, and iron oxide and its modified forms are considered as the most effective adsorbent in terms of adsorption capacity, recovery, and economics. However, most of all iron oxides have small surface area in comparing with common adsorbents in environmental application such as activated carbon but the activated carbon has weak sorption affinity for arsenic. We have used an activated carbon as base adsorbent and iron oxide coating on the activated carbon as high affinity sorption sites and giving magnetic attraction ability. In this study, adsorption properties of arsenic and magnetic separation efficiency of the magnetized activated carbon (MAC) were evaluated with variable iron oxide content. As the iron oxide content of the MAC increased, adsorption capacity has also gradually increased up to a point where clogging by iron oxide in the pore of activated carbon compensate the increased sorption capacity. The increase of iron oxide content of the MAC also affected magnetic properties, which resulted in greater magnetic separation efficiency. Current results show that magnetically modified common adsorbent can be an efficiency improved adsorbent and a feasible environmental process if it is combined with the magnetic separation.

• Carbon letters
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• v.11 no.2
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• pp.131-136
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• 2010

Propellant waste was impregnated on the surface of activated carbon fiber and heat-treated at different temperature to introduce newly developed functional groups on the ACF surface. Functional groups of nitrogen and oxygen such as pyridine, pyridone, pyrrol, lacton and carboxyl were newly introduced on the surface of modified activated carbon fiber. The porosity, specific surface area, and morphology of those modified ACFs were changed as increasing the heat-treated temperature from 200 to $500^{\circ}C$. The optimum heat-treatment temperature was suggested to $500^{\circ}C$, because lower temperature given rise to the decrease of specific surface area and higher temperature resulted in the decrease of weight loss. Propellant waste can be used as an useful surface modifier to porous carbons.

• Carbon letters
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• v.4 no.1
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• pp.14-20
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• 2003

Based on the previous results of the equilibrium and batch adsorptions, the removal efficiency of the two-step surface-modified activated carbon ($2^{nd}AC$) for heavy metal ions such as Pb, Cd, and Cr in fixed column was evaluated by comparing with that of the as-received activated carbon (AC) and the first surface-modified activated carbon ($1^{st}AC$). The order of metal removal efficiency was found as $2^{nd}AC$ > $1^{st}AC$ $\gg$ AC, and the efficiency of the $2^{nd}AC$ maintained over 98% from the each metal solution. Increase of the removal efficiency by the second surface modification was contributed to maintain favorable pH condition of bulk solution during adsorption process. The removal of the heavy metals on the $2^{nd}AC$ was selective with Pb being removed in preference to Cr and Cd in multicomponent solutions and slightly influenced by phenol as the organic material.

• Journal of Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
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• v.26 no.1
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• pp.77-85
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• 2012

The present study investigates treatment methods for removal of arsenic from wastewater. The granular activated carbon (GAC) with the coating of iron chloride ($FeCl_3$) was used for the treatment of a low concentration of arsenic from wastewater. Batch experiments were performed to investigate the synthesis of Fe-GAC (Iron coated granular activated carbon), effects of pH, adsorption kinetics and the Langmuir model. The synthesized Fe-GAC with 0.1 M $FeCl_3$ shows best removal efficiency. Adsorption studies were carried out in the optimum pH range of 4-6 for arsenic removal. The Fe-GAC showed promising results by removing 99.4% of arsenic. In the adsorption isotherm studies, the observed data fitted well with the Langmuir models. In continuous column study showed that As(V) could be removed to below 0.25 mg/L within 1,020 pore volume. Our results suggest that the surface modified granular activated carbon treated with $FeCl_3$ for effective removal of arsenic from wastewater.

• Journal of the Korean GEO-environmental Society
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• v.25 no.5
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• pp.5-13
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• 2024

This paper investigates the stabilization feasibility of contaminated sediment contaminated with benzyl butyl phthalate (BBP) using acid/base-modified activated carbon. The efficiency of stabilizers was evaluated by analyzing the impact of the activated carbon on the decomposition and adsorption of the contaminant, along with the biological effects on earthworms. Additionally, the contaminant migration was monitored with the BBP concentration in pore water using low-density polyethylene. The research results indicated that the accumulated concentration of BBP was approximately 2% lower in the experimental group applying a 5% mixture ratio of modified activated carbon compared to the group applying a 10% mixture ratio. The leaching into water was reduced by over 18% in all experimental conditions after 7-day exposure period. Over 25% reduction was observed after 28-day exposure. The pore water concentrations were measured. After 7 days of exposure, the mechanically mixed experimental group exhibited a higher pore water stabilization rate compared to the biologically mixed group. Within the mechanically mixed group, the experimental group with 10% mixture of modified activated carbon showed a 1% higher stabilization rate than the group with 5% mixture. After 28 days of exposure, the biologically mixed experimental group demonstrated a higher pore water stabilization rate compared to the mechanically mixed group. Moreover, within the biologically mixed group, the experimental group with 10% mixture of modified activated carbon showed approximately 0.1% higher stabilization rate than the group with 5% mixture.

• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
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• v.32 no.6
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• pp.671-678
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• 2021

Effects of nitric acid treatment of an activated carbon and impregnation of metal chlorides on the activated carbon were investigated to improve ammonia adsorption performance. It was confirmed that functional groups such as hydroxyl and carboxyl groups were introduced onto a surface of the activated carbon with nitric acid treatment. Then, each metal chloride (NiCl₂, MgCl₂, CuCl₂, MnCl₂ or CoCl₂) was impregnated onto the surface-modified activated carbon using an ultrasonic impregnation method. The physicochemical properties and ammonia adsorption performance of various impregnated activated carbons were observed. Metal chlorides were well dispersed by sonication and evenly distributed on the surface of the activated carbon. Despite the reduced specific surface area and pore volume, the surface-modified activated carbon impregnated with metal chlorides exhibited excellent ammonia adsorption performance. In particular, HNO₃-NiCl₂ AC prepared by impregnating NiCl₂ showed the best ammonia adsorption capacity of 3.736 mmol·g^-1, which was improved by about 57 times compared to that of an untreated activated carbon (0.066 mmol·g^-1).

• Journal of Soil and Groundwater Environment
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• v.28 no.6
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• pp.16-23
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• 2023

Heavy metal (Zinc, Cadmium, Lead) adsorption onto surface modified activated carbon was performed in order to better understand the effect of sodium ion addition to activated carbon. Surface modification methods in this research included water washing, nitric acid washing, and sodium addition after nitric acid washing. These surface modifications generated oxygen functional groups with sodium ions on the surface of the activated carbon.. This caused the change of the specific surface area as well as in the ratio of the carboxyl groups. Heavy metal adsorption onto sodium-containing activated carbon was the most among the three modifications. After the adsorption of heavy metals, the carboxyl group ratio decreased and sodium ions on the surface of the activated carbon were almost non-existent after the adsorption of heavy metals onto sodium-containing activated carbon. The results from this research indicated that ion exchange with sodium ions in carboxyl groups effectively improved heavy metal adsorption rather than electrostatic adsorption and hydrogen ion exchange.

• Carbon letters
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• v.20
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• pp.19-25
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• 2016

Activated carbon fiber (ACF) surfaces are modified using an electron beam under different aqueous solutions to improve the NO gas sensitivity of a gas sensor based on ACFs. The oxygen functional group on the ACF surface is changed, resulting in an increase of the number of non-carbonyl (-C-O-C-) groups from 32.5% for pristine ACFs to 39.53% and 41.75% for ACFs treated with hydrogen peroxide and potassium hydroxide solutions, respectively. We discover that the NO gas sensitivity of the gas sensor fabricated using the modified ACFs as an electrode material is increased, although the specific surface area of the ACFs is decreased because of the recovery of their crystal structure. This is attributed to the static electric interaction between NO gas and the non-carbonyl groups introduced onto the ACF surfaces.