New environmental selective micro-mesoporous carbonaceous sorbent for eliminating tobacco specific nitrosamines and lead ion.

New selective carbonaceous sorbent is one-pot fabricated using microburst of bi-metal salts in order to eliminate carcinogens in environment. We used discarded cigarette butts as carbon source, aluminum nitrate and ferrous acetate as pore-forming agents to prepare the versatile sorbent with a developed porosity and the well-exposed metal oxides in order to replace zeolites for the selective adsorption in environment protection. Numerous finely divided porous particles endowed the composite a surface area of over 350 m2g-1, enabling it to be the best sorbent of tobacco specific nitrosamines (TSNA) to date in solution. It adsorbed 41% of TSNA among hundreds of components in tobacco extract solution or 142 mg g−1of 4-methylnitrosamino-1-3-pyridyl-1-butanone (NNK) in aqueous solution, and rapidly trapped Pb(Ⅱ) at the S/L of 0.2 within 10 min with a capacity of 153 mg g−1. Moreover, new sorbent could catalyze the degradation of NNK in mild conditions, which is rare but is very important for environmental protection. [Display omitted] • One-pot fabricating selective sorbent from discarded cigarette butts eco-friendly. • New environmental selective sorbent traps TSNA better than zeolite. • The versatile sorbent catalyzes the degradation of NNK in mild condition. • It is the fastest trapper of lead ion in aqueous solution to date. • Cleaning environment with recycle of waste. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]