Porous carbon by microwave assisted pyrolysis: An effective and low-cost adsorbent for sulfamethoxazole adsorption and optimization using response surface methodology

In this work, we described a facile synthesis of porous carbon (PC-H2O2) using microwave-assisted pyrolysis and hydrogen peroxide as a chemical activator, almond shell was used as a raw source. The synthesized sample (PC-H2O2) was used as a highly efficient adsorbent for ultrasound adsorption of antibiotic sulfamethoxazole (SMZ). The PC-H2O2 was characterized using X-Ray photoelectron spectroscopy, Brunauer-Emmett-Teller surface area (BET), X-ray Diffraction (XRD), X-Ray Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), Raman Spectroscopy, Fourier transform infrared (FTIR), Fluorescence X and Boehm titration. The PC-H2O2 was found to have a high surface area of 1274 m(2)/g, which provide a large number of active sites for SMZ molecules. The pseudo-second-order model described the ultrasound-assisted adsorption kinetics data. The isotherms were accurately described by the Langmuir model with a monolayer adsorption capacity of 344.8 mg/g. The adsorption mechanism was proposed based on FTIR analysis before and after ultrasound-assisted adsorption. The reusability of PC-H2O2 loaded SMZ was investigated and Response Surface Methodology was used to optimize the removal efficiency of SMZ. (C) 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.