© The Institution of Engineering and Technology
Highly mono-disperse carbon spheres (CSs) with a tunable diameter of 300–4000 nm are shown to be successfully synthesised using sugar-rich wastewater as carbon sources and polyacrylamide (PAM) as a size-controlling agent. The effects of PAM and pH on the morphology and size were also investigated. Experimental results showed that PAM acted as a size-directing agent which directs the self-assembly of sugar from wastewater to form the spheroidal particles. The size of CSs could be increased from 300 to 600 nm without any alteration in the morphologies by altering the solution pH from 7 to 12. Furthermore, the size of spheroidal carbon particles can be easily controlled by increasing the concentration of PAM from 0.05 to 0.1% (w/v) at pH 12. The largest sizes of CSs grew nearly 4000 nm without damage to their morphology or broadening of their size distribution with the addition of 0.1% PAM. On the basis of the experimental results, a mechanism is proposed to elucidate the formation of CSs with a wide diameter range. It is believed that this work not only provides a novel potential way to utilise wastewater, but also puts forward a facile sustainable approach to synthesise size-controllable CSs.
References
-
-
1)
-
3. Caruso, F., Caruso, R.A., Möhwald, H.: ‘Nanoengineering of inorganic and hybrid hollow spheres by colloidal templating’, Science, 1998, 282, pp. 1111–1114 (doi: 10.1126/science.282.5391.1111).
-
2)
-
5. Xu, Z., Guo, Q.: ‘A simple method to prepare monodisperse and size-tunable carbon nanospheres from phenolic resin’, Carbon, 2013, 52, pp. 464–467 (doi: 10.1016/j.carbon.2012.09.057).
-
3)
-
12. Heilmann, S.M., Davis, H.T., Jader, L.R., et al: ‘Hydrothermal carbonization of microalgae’, Biomass Bioenergy, 2010, 34, pp. 875–882 (doi: 10.1016/j.biombioe.2010.01.032).
-
4)
-
7. Demir-Cakan, R., Baccile, N., Antonietti, M., Titirici, M.: ‘Carboxylate-rich carbonaceous materials via one-step hydrothermal carbonization of glucose in the presence of acrylic acid’, Chem. Mater., 2009, 21, pp. 484–490 (doi: 10.1021/cm802141h).
-
5)
-
8. Lee, K.U., Kim, M.J., Park, K.J., Kim, M., Kwon, O.J., Kim, J.J.: ‘Catalytic growth of a colloidal carbon sphere by hydrothermal reaction with iron oxide (Fe3O4) catalyst’, Mater. Lett., 2014, 125, pp. 213–217 (doi: 10.1016/j.matlet.2014.03.163).
-
6)
-
10. Shin, Y., Wang, L., Bae, I.W., Arey, B.J., Exarhos, G.: ‘Hydrothermal syntheses of colloidal carbon spheres from cyclodextrins’, J. Phys. Chem. C, 2008, 112, pp. 14236–14240 (doi: 10.1021/jp801343y).
-
7)
-
9. Ouyang, H., Li, C., Huang, J., Fei, J.: ‘Synthesis of carbon/carbon composites by hydrothermal carbonization using starch as carbon source’, RSC Adv., 2013, 4, pp. 12586–12589.
-
8)
-
1. Joo, J.B., Kim, Y.J., Kim, W., Kim, P., Yi, J.: ‘Simple synthesis of graphitic porous carbon by hydrothermal method for use as a catalyst support in methanol electro-oxidation’, Catal. Commun., 2008, 10, pp. 267–271 (doi: 10.1016/j.catcom.2008.08.031).
-
9)
-
6. Zheng, M., Liu, Y., Jiang, K., Xiao, Y., Yuan, D.: ‘Alcohol-assisted hydrothermal carbonization to fabricate spheroidal carbons with a tunable shape and aspect ratio’, Carbon, 2010, 48, pp. 1224–1233 (doi: 10.1016/j.carbon.2009.11.045).
-
10)
-
14. Cheng, F., Liang, J., Zhao, J., Tao, Z., Jun, C.: ‘Biomass waste-derived microporous carbons with controlled texture and enhanced hydrogen uptake’, Chem. Mater., 2008, 20, pp. 1889–1895 (doi: 10.1021/cm702816x).
-
11)
-
13. Titirici, M.M., Thomas, A., Yu, S., Müller, J., Antonietti, M.: ‘A direct synthesis of mesoporous carbons with bicontinuous pore morphology from crude plant material by hydrothermal carbonization’, Chem. Mater., 2007, 19, pp. 4205–4212 (doi: 10.1021/cm0707408).
-
12)
-
2. Marriott, A.S., Bergstrom, E., Hunt, A.J., Thomas-Oates, J., Clark, J.H.: ‘A natural template approach to mesoporous carbon spheres for use as green chromatographic stationary phases’, RSC Adv., 2014, 4, pp. 222–228 (doi: 10.1039/C3RA44428G).
-
13)
-
11. Hammud, H.H., Shmait, A., Hourani, N.: ‘Removal of malachite green from water using hydrothermally carbonized pine needles’, RSC Adv., 2015, 5, pp. 7909–7920 (doi: 10.1039/C4RA15505J).
-
14)
-
15. Cheng, P., Zhao, H., Zhao, B., Ni, J.R.: ‘Pilot treatment of wastewater from Dioscorea zingiberensis C.H. Wright production by anaerobic digestion combined with a biological aerated filter’, Bioresour. Technol., 2009, 100, pp. 2918–2925 (doi: 10.1016/j.biortech.2009.01.054).
-
15)
-
4. Li, M., Li, W., Liu, X.: ‘Hydrothermal synthesis, characterization, and KOH activation of carbon spheres from glucose’, Carbohydr. Res., 2011, 346, pp. 999–1004 (doi: 10.1016/j.carres.2011.03.020).
-
16)
-
16. Titirici, M., Antonietti, M., Baccile, N.: ‘Hydrothermal carbon from biomass: a comparison of the local structure from poly- to monosaccharides and pentoses/hexoses’, Green Chem., 2008, 10, pp. 1204–1212 (doi: 10.1039/b807009a).
http://iet.metastore.ingenta.com/content/journals/10.1049/mnl.2015.0212
Related content
content/journals/10.1049/mnl.2015.0212
pub_keyword,iet_inspecKeyword,pub_concept
6
6