Hello dear sir/Madam
currently am working on producing activated carbon from red macroalgae by method of acid impregnation/pyrolsis.
also am doing batch adsorption for lead Pb+2 amd Cu+2 for both the dried biomass and its activated carbon.
despite having a surface area higher than 800, am getting significalty better removal and metal uptake for the raw powder compared to the activated carbon (roughly tripled).
looking forward for your thoughts on this matter,
regards
Yes. Algae biomass is a nice sorbent itself - some components, such as alginic acid, can interact stronly with metals. On the other hand depending on the temperature of carbonization and pretreatment, activated carbon can be quite inert. We experimented with metal sorption on seaweeds some time ago. Article Sorption of Metal Oxoanions by Composite Biosorbents of Wast...
Sometimes surface area and porosity isn't the main influencing factors...
In the case of algal biomass, pH is one of the most important parameter of the metal ion biosorption capacity. The initial and final pH of the experiment related to the metal ion complexation chemistry in solution, and behavior of many different functional groups present in the surface of algal biomass as well. Also, sorbent characterisation (FTIR, XPS, pHpzc, EDX, XRD etc) before and after of the batch trials will highlight the mechanisms involved in biosorption. Only after these analyses is possible to make some conclusion.
Dear Dr. Luděk Jelínek
Thank your for sharing your experience and knowledge
I agree with Dr Ludek Jelinek for his nice explanations regarding this. Algae can uptake heavy metals by complex formations with so many organic enzymatic substances. On the other hand, activated carbon can trap heavy metals through the process of surface adsorption which are loosely bound. So, activated carbon shows lower degree of heavy metal removal than algae.
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