Preparation and Properties of Porous Composite of Hematite/Magnetite/Carbon with Eucalyptus Wood Biotemplate

By using eucalyptus wood biotemplate, a novel porous composite material of iron oxides and carbon (PC-Fe/C) was manufactured for adsorption of oxoanion pollutants. The material's microstructure and characteristic were investigated by different characterization techniques. The experimental results show that the PC-Fe/C composite mainly consisted of hematite, magnetite, and carbon, and preserved the porous hierarchical texture of the wood with 70 similar to 120 mu m macropores, 4.1 similar to 6.4 mu m mesopores, and 0.1 similar to 1.3 mu m micropores. Its Brunauer-Emmtee-Teller (BET) surface area was 59.2m(2) g(-1). The maximum adsorption capacities were 2.49, 2.96, and 0.69mg g(-1) for arsenic(V), chromium(VI), and phosphorus(V), respectively. The adsorption capacities of the unpulverized material as a novel filtration adsorbent are comparable to fine particles of the pulverized material, natural, and synthetic iron oxides.