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The removal of pollutants from water bodies is important for the protection of the environment, as the discharge of contaminated wastewater into natural water resources can cause damage to humans and the environment. Adsorption proves to be an effective method against these pollutants. Common adsorbents are activated carbon and silicate compounds (silica gels). Activated carbon is a highly porous powder or granulate, which is predestined as an adsorbent with a specific surface of up to 3000 m2g-1 . Silicates are composed of silicon-oxygen tetrahedra with metal ions between the layers or between the chains. Carbon-silica composites combine the properties of carbon and silica. Thus, the hydrophobicity of carbon is combined with the hydrophilicity of silica. In this PhD project, the development of an innovative synthesis route from rice husks to carbon-silica composites will be investigated. Thereby, the aim is to control the ratio of carbon to silica and to generate their homogeneous distribution on a nanoscale level. By-products within the synthesis route will also be converted into adsorbents.
Nitrogen sorption, mercury intrusion, water glass analysis, CHN elemental analysis, optical emission spectrometry with inductively coupled plasma and scanning electron microscopy are mainly used for characterisation.
Synthesis of carbon-silica composites
Topics Bachelor, Advanced and Master Theses
In the course of Green Chemistry, the sustainable synthesis of adsorbents for the removal of pollutants from water bodies is becoming increasingly important. Agricultural residues in particular are playing an increasingly important role here.
Within this topic, carbon-silica composites are to be produced from the agricultural residue rice husks via various synthesis steps. The variation of different parameters will be investigated.
Nitrogen sorption, water glass analysis, CHN elemental analysis, optical emission spectrometry with inductively coupled plasma and scanning electron microscopy are mainly used for characterisation.