Biocompatible magnetic N-rich activated carbon from egg white biomass and sucrose: Preparation, characterization and investigation of dye adsorption capacity from aqueous solution

In the present work, N-rich activated carbon was synthesized using hydrothermal carbonization of egg white biomass in the presence of sucrose, followed by chemical activation and magnetization of hydrochar in the presence of iron (II) and (III) at NaOH solution. The results showed that the sucrose has a critical role in hydrochar yield by increasing of sucrose content. This claim also proved by SEM analysis, which hydrochar morphology was changed from the layered to fused carbon spheres morphology that confirmed the increasing of nucleation site. The materials were characterized with VSM, SEM, CHN, FTIR, Raman spectroscopy and XRD techniques. Capacity of prepared magnetic activated carbon was studied in the methylene blue adsorption from aqueous solution. The influence of different parameters, such as various activation methods of carbon, carbon amount, pH, temperature, contact time and initial dye concentration, on the adsorption of methylene blue was studied. Simultaneously chemical activation and magnetization of hydrochar provided an N-rich activated carbon with high adsorption capacity rather than chemical KOH activation method.