Hydrochar fuctionalized with sulfurous acid of Agave Tequilana Weber leaves

This work studied the obtaintion of a functionalized carbon in a single stage using green leaves of Agave Tequilana Weber var. blue by hydrothermal carbonization (HTC) and a chemical activation with sulfurous acid. The variables studied were the treatment time (8, 16, 24 h) and the sulfonic acid concentration (0, 1.5, 3.0, 4.5% w/v). The functionalized carbon was morphologically characterized by the techniques SEM, TEM, DRX and BET and chemically by the techniques FTIR, ¹³C, NMR of solids, XPS and elemental analysis, to determine the level of functionalization that has been achieved by this stage. A potential application of functionalized carbon is the adsorption of heavy metals in residual solutions; the research focused on the adsorption of hexavalent chromium (Cr⁺⁶) at different pH and Cr⁺⁶ concentrations were determined by experimentally. With these studies, adsorption kinetics was made using the sample CF-8H-4.5 at pH=2.0 and 50 ppm of Cr⁺⁶. This carbon had an uptake of 19.50 mg Cr⁺⁶ / g CF-8H-4.5, a quite promising result and better than others carbons of this study.

Audience take away:

• This work shows how to obtain an hydrochar in one step
• Those hydrochars can be use as a heavy metal removal from water