Functionalization of mesoporous carbons derived from pomelo peel as capacitive electrodes for preferential removal/recovery of copper and lead from contaminated water

Water is not only a valuable resource that needed to sustain life, but also an essential ingredient in many engineering processes, which unavoidably leads large volumes of water being contaminated. To achieve safe discharge and recover “pollutants”, better performing sorbents are rapidly efficiently decontaminate while generating minimal secondary wastes. Bio-sorbents derived from pomelo peel were functionalized with pyrrolic-N (BNC-5 electrode) pyridinic-N (BNC-6 enhance electroadsorption selectivity Pb2+ Cu2+. The interaction between soft acid ions (Pb2+) base sites (pyrrolic-N) contributed strong chemisorption elevated the capacity 2.0 mmol g−1 for at applied voltage 1.2 V. With fast removal kinetics (0.077 g mg−1 min−1 Pb2+), BNC-5 sorbent performed comparably other N-doped prepared using graphene. adsorption–desorption hysteresis responding electric confirmed nature chemisorption. results showed 32.4% adsorbed desorbed by reducing 0 V, reached almost complete desorption (98.5% ions) –0.8 When operated cycle mode, after ∼ 400 cycles maintained retention ≥ 80%. After cycles, electrode was fully restored (98.7%) mild chemical washing (0.1 M HNO3) cycling performance maintained. study demonstrated robustness over 1200 hence potential successfully convert waste into high-performance materials large-scale remediation strategies contaminated wastewater CDI.