The adsorption of environmental pollutants in gas and aqueous media utilizing nano-scale materials
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In this body of work, the synthesis and characterization of several nanoporous materials have been described, as well as the application of these materials towards environmentally positive means. Largely, this work involves porous carbon materials produced from the amino acid L-histidine, a porous carbon precursor high in nitrogen and oxygen. Although pyrolysis of this precursor alone produces a non-porous foam, the introduction of any of a number of activating agents is shown here to produce a variety of amorphous and highly porous carbon materials. While applications of these materials have a very wide range, in this body of work the adsorption of pollutants is emphasized. Among the aqueous pollutants, both textile dyes and pharmaceuticals were investigated for their abilities to be taken up by these porous carbon materials. Individually, many of the porous carbons were capable of the uptake of noteworthy quantities of various pollutants. Yet, a broader finding in this work was that it appears the ‘tuning' of properties on a porous carbon is required to target each different adsorbate; no single property is universally linked to higher capacities. Apart from aqueous pollutants, the adsorption of CO2 was thoroughly investigated on many porous carbons. Given their high nitrogen content, it was expected that these materials would do well for CO2 uptake. And indeed, it was found that several histidine-derived porous carbons were capable of noteworthy capacities, such as 8.30 and 5.57 mmol g-1. Through investigation of the porous carbon textural and chemical properties, these capacities are ascribed to a mixture of physisorption and chemisorption processes. Finally, the adsorption of CO2 was investigated on an amine-coated porous silica. With the purpose of making such nano-scale materials more feasible, immobilization inside a bacterial cellulose framework is investigated. Ultimately, it was found that after fine-tuning the loading process, a functional hybrid material can be made that successfully immobilizes the adsorbent material without sacrificing the capture abilities.
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Ph. D.