Materiais nanoestruturados de carbono utilizando zeólitas como direcionador de estrutura

Abstract

The search for new materials for the treatment of effluents contaminated with organic waste is of great scientific relevance. Therefore, this work aimed to investigate the synthesis of nanostructured carbon materials using zeolites as a structured guide, “zeolite template carbons (ztc)” for later use as an adsorbent and a semiconductor material for heterogeneous photocatalysis. Both materials were characterized based on their surface area, X-ray diffraction, and scanning electron microscopy, where the results showed that both synthesized ZTCs presented a type 2 structure characterized by carbon burning inside and outside the interstices. Of zeolite, where the ZTC synthesized with methanol presented a high surface area of 1200 m² g -1 and a uniform homogeneous structure, while the ZTC synthesized with acetonitrile presented an area of 212 m2 g -1 resulting in more misshapen and heterogeneous particles. ZTC synthesized with methanol was used as an adsorbent for ketoprofen in aqueous solution where the results indicated fast adsorption kinetics and an excellent adsorption capacity of 280 mg g1 of drug at a temperature of 298 K, using the experimental conditions of pH five and adsorbent dosage of 0.5 g L-1 . The adsorption proved exothermic, favorable, and spontaneous, where the ZTC remained stable for up to 5 reuse cycles. Excellent results were also found in treating river water contaminated with different drugs, obtaining 84% matrix removal and decreasing microbial activity. ZTC synthesized with acetonitrile was used in the heterogeneous photocatalysis of ketoprofen and ibuprofen in aqueous solution, where the results indicated that ZTC showed high efficiency in the degradation of drugs under the optimal reaction conditions of natural pH 5, catalyst dosage of 0.1 g L-1 and initial drug concentration of 40 mg L-1 . ZTC remained stable for reuse up to 4 cycles, and almost complete mineralization was achieved within 30 min in binary systems. Therefore, the results indicated that ZTCs proved to be a highly efficient solution for effectively removing drugs, highlighting their significant potential in treating contaminated water.