Sustainable nitrogen-rich activated carbon derived from Rhizophora mucronata propagules for wastewater treatment and hydrogen generation

초록

The present investigation delineated the first ever preparation of highly effective microporous nitrogen (N) doped activated carbon derived from Rhizophora mucronata propagules and its role in energy and environmental applications. The enrichment of nitrogen in the carbon was accomplished via melamine at 700 degrees C under N-2 atmosphere and then calcined at 900 degrees C to achieve highly porous nitrogen doped activated carbon (NAC). The fabricated NAC was characterized using various analytical tools to understand its physicochemical and structural properties. In the adsorption study, three different dyes such as methylene blue (MB), malachite green (MG) and Erichrome black-T (EBT) are used adsorbates. The NAC demonstrated >99 % of dye removal efficiency within less contact time due to its better surface area (1802.5 m(2)g(-1)) and pore volume (1.0691 cm(3)g(-1)). The lab-scale cartridge was prepared using NAC and analyzed real-time feasibility to treat polluted water. This cartridge showed 99 % and 83 % removal efficiency of MB and EBT, respectively. In electrochemical application, the NAC has lower overpotential towards hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) than the nitrogen doped carbon. The better HER activity of NAC is because of the presence of N in the material, particularly pyrrole nitrogen (confirmed in XPS), which has high affinity for hydrogen atoms adsorption resulting improved hydrogen evolution in comparison to nitrogen doped carbon. Therefore, NAC can be considered as promising material in the field of water treatment and HER application.

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