Renewable biomass derived hierarchically porous carbonaceous sponges and their magnetic nanocomposites for removal of organic molecules from water

This work describes the preparation, characterization and removal capability of a novel biomass derived carbonaceous sponges (CS) and their nanocomposites. The CS has hierarchically porous structure which is composed of lamellar structures and secondary porous structures. The pore size is on a scale from 1 nm to 200 mu m. Utilizing the CS as adsorbents, rapid removal of model organic molecules, including methylene blue (MB), methyl orange (MO) and crystal violet (CV), from their aqueous solutions can be completed within 1 min with the assistance of pressure and the removal efficiency reaches up to 100%, 81% and 98%, respectively. The removal capabilities for CS towards MB, MO and CV are 0.0769 g/g, 0.2218 g/g and 1.0384 g/g, respectively and 0.0635 g/g, 0.0977 g/g and 0.8634 g/g, respectively for CS nanocomposites. (C) 2017 The Korean Society of Industrial and Engineering Chemistry. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.