Novel 3D lightweight carbon foam as an effective adsorbent for arsenic() removal from contaminated water

In the present work, an efficient system for removal of pentavalent arsenic (As( v )) from water has been developed using a novel three-dimensional (3D) lightweight carbon foam. The carbon foam was synthesized from phenolic resin by a sacrificial template technique followed by stabilisation and carbonisation. The carbon foam was characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD) for phase identification and energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS) for compositional analysis. This same carbon foam has been utilized for the removal of As( v ), and remaining concentrations were determined using an atomic absorption spectrophotometer-hydride generator (AAS-HG) at varying adsorption parameters, viz. time, pH and adsorbate dose. The adsorption data is best fitted to a Langmuir isotherm and suggests monolayer adsorption over a homogenous surface. The adsorption capacity of carbon foam is 38.4 μg g −1 and the % of arsenic removal is 99.1%, which is very high as compared to other low density carbon materials. The carbon foams efficiently adsorbed As( v ) and purify water below the prescribed limits of the world health organization (WHO) and the United States-environmental protection agency (US-EPA). An efficient removal of pentavalent arsenic (As( v )) from water has been developed using novel three-dimensional (3D) light weight carbon foam which exhibit adoption capacity of 38.4 μg g −1 .