New nanoporous carbon materials with high adsorption capacity and rapid adsorption kinetics for removing humic acids

We report that new nanoporous carbon materials (SMCI), which were produced using silica sol particles as templates, show higher and faster adsorption of humic acids than two commercial activated carbons (F400 and Norit SA). In the best result, SMCI showed 16 times the adsorption capacity of conventional activated carbons. In addition, the adsorption of humic:acids on SMCI proceeded very quickly, reaching the equilibrium concentration of humic acids within 15 min. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science Inc. All rights.reserved.