Journal
FRONTIERS OF CHEMICAL SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING
Volume 16, Issue 4, Pages 475-483Publisher
SPRINGER
DOI: 10.1007/s11705-021-2070-x
Keywords
non-thermal plasma; surface functionalization; biochar modification; wastewater treatment; supercapacitor
Categories
Funding
- National Natural Science Foundation of China [52007023]
- Natural Science Foundation of Liaoning Province, China [2020-BS-073, 2019-ZD-0160]
- China Postdoctoral Science Foundation [2019M661107]
- Dalian Maritime University basic scientific research business expenses key scientific research cultivation project [3132020371]
- Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities [3132021159]
- QUT Postgraduate Research Award
- Faculty Write Up Scholarship
- Australian Research Council (ARC)
- QUT Centre for Materials Science
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Surface functionalization of biochar with non-thermal plasma can enhance metal adsorption rate and capacity, while plasma treatment followed by KOH activation can lead to a carbon product with larger surface area and improved supercapacitor performance. This study offers insights for enhancing surface functionality and application performance of biochar using non-thermal techniques.
Surface functionalization or modification to introduce more oxygen-containing functional groups to biochar is an effective strategy for tuning the physico-chemical properties and promoting follow-up applications. In this study, non-thermal plasma was applied for biochar surface carving before being used in contaminant removal and energy storage applications. The results showed that even a low dose of plasma exposure could introduce a high number density of oxygen-functional groups and enhance the hydrophilicity and metal affinity of the pristine biochar. The plasma-treated biochar enabled a faster metal-adsorption rate and a 40% higher maximum adsorption capacity of heavy metal ion Pb2+. Moreover, to add more functionality to biochar surface, biochar with and without plasma pre-treatment was activated by KOH at a temperature of 800 degrees C. Using the same amount of KOH, the plasma treatment resulted in an activated carbon product with the larger BET surface area and pore volume. The performance of the treated activated carbon as a supercapacitor electrode was also substantially improved by > 30%. This study may provide guidelines for enhancing the surface functionality and application performances of biochar using non-thermal-based techniques.
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