Biowaste derived sustainable carbon aerogels/polyvinylidene fluoride composites for effective removal of organic pollutants/oils

The sustainable low cost carbon aerogels (CA) derived from biowaste have wide application prospects in the environment and energy field. Due to the inherent fragility, the practical application of CA in removal of pollutants is limited. To address this issue, polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) was introduced into CA which was derived from pomelo peels. The CA/PVDF composites were prepared with solvent exchange by soaking CA in PVDF solutions with different concentrations. The influence of PVDF solution concentration on the internal morphology and hydrophobicity of the CA/PVDF composites were investigated. Static adsorption experiments showed that CA/PVDF composites had good adsorption ability for many common organic solvents and oils, and the adsorption ability decreased with the increase of the concentration of PVDF. The adsorption-desorption-regeneration cycle experiments showed that CA/PVDF composites had good reuse and regeneration. In addition, the adsorption properties of CA/PVDF composites as an adsorbent on phenol in aqueous solution were appraised. The results indicated that the kinetic data of the adsorption process was well described by the pseudo-second-order kinetic model, and the experimental equilibrium data fitted well with the Langmuir isotherm model with the maximum adsorption capacity of 13.09 mg/g.