Porous activated carbons derived from bamboo pulp black liquor for effective adsorption removal of tetracycline hydrochloride and malachite green from water

As a kind of waste water produced by papermaking industry, bamboo pulp black liquor (BPBL) discharged into water cause serious environmental problems. In this work, BPBL was successfully converted into porous carbon after activation with potassium hydroxide (KOH) through one-step carbonization, and adsorption properties of porous carbon derived from bamboo pulp black liquor (BLPC) for tetracycline hydrochloride (TCH) and malachite green (MG) were studied. Adsorption capacity of BLPC for TCH and MG arrive at 1047 mg/g and 1277 mg/g due to its large specific surface area of 1859.08 m(2)/g, respectively. Kinetics and isotherm data are well fitted to the pseudo-second-order rate model and Langmuir model, respectively. Adsorption experiments and characterizations reveal that the adsorption mechanism involves in TCH and MG adsorption on BLPC mainly depends on the synergistic effect of pore filling, H-bonding, pi-pi interactions and weak electrostatic interactions. In addition, BLPC shows excellent photothermal properties, and the adsorption capacity of TCH and MG on BLPC can reach 584 and 847 mg/g under the irradiation of near infrared lamp for 50 min, respectively. The synthesized BLPC with high adsorption efficiency, good recovery ability, improved adsorption under near-infrared irradiation can be promising and effective adsorbents for TCH or MG or other pollutes.

Automated summary

In this study, bamboo pulp black liquor (BPBL) was successfully converted into porous carbon and its adsorption properties for tetracycline hydrochloride (TCH) and malachite green (MG) were investigated. The results showed that the synthesized porous carbon had high adsorption capacity and excellent photothermal properties, making it a promising and effective adsorbent for TCH, MG, or other pollutants.