High surface area ordered mesoporous carbons from waste polyester: effective adsorbent for organic pollutants from aqueous solution

With using ordered mesoporous silica as a hard template, high surface area porous carbon materials were prepared when a chemical degradation of waste polyester beverage packaging was employed as a precursor, and it was characterized by X-ray diffraction, Brunauer–Emmett–Teller, scanning electron microscopy, and transmission electron microscopy. Polyester derived porous carbons were used as adsorbents to remove three typical organic pollutants, phenol, methylene blue, and 1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium chloride ([Bmim]Cl) from water. The effects of several parameters including contact time, adsorption temperature, and initial concentration were investigated via batch adsorption experiments. The adsorption kinetics fitted well with pseudo-second-order model and intraparticle diffusion mode. Furthermore, linear isotherm studies revealed better fitting of Langmuir model to adsorption data, and the estimated maximum monolayer adsorption capacity for phenol, methylene blue, and [Bmim]Cl was 675.7, 5298.6, and 341.3 mg/g, respectively. Graphical Abstract