Adsorption and removal of perfluorinated compounds from aqueous solution using magnetic fluorinated porous carbons

Abstract Perfluorinated compounds (PFCs) cause environmental pollution and serious health issues. Therefore, magnetic fluorinated porous carbons (M-FPCs) derived from the carbonization and further fluorination of Fe-Zr MOFs were used as novel adsorbents to investigate the possibility of PFC removal from wastewater. Investigation of the adsorption behavior of PFCs on M-FPCs revealed that the isotherms conformed to the Langmuir model and kinetics fit the pseudo-second-order model. Simulations using the Weber–Morris and Boyd diffusion models indicated that the adsorption of PFCs on M-FPCs involved external mass transfer first, followed by intraparticle diffusion, where film diffusion was the primary controlling process. M-FPCs with maximum adsorption ranging from 518.1–919.3 mg g − 1 for studied PFCs were adopted to remove PFCs from simulated wastewaters of textile mill and leather factory. Up to 98.1–100.0% of PFCs were removed within 15 min, and the residual levels of PFCs reached drinking water standards after treatment, which suggests the promising application of M-FPCs in the removal of PFCs from wastewater.