Porous Graphitic Biomass Carbons as Sustainable Adsorption and Controlled Release Carriers for Atrazine Fixation

• Published in: ACS sustainable chemistry & engineering Vol. 7; no. 24; pp. 20180 - 20189
• Main Authors: Jiao, Wen-Bin, Zhang, Yu-Qing, Yu, Kai, Zhou, Jun-Ru, Cao, Hai-Lei, Lü, Jian
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: American Chemical Society 16.12.2019
• Subjects: Adsorption and desorption; Water and soil remediation; Triazine herbicides; Biomass carbon
• ISSN: 2168-0485; 2168-0485
• DOI: 10.1021/acssuschemeng.9b06269

Herbicides are widely used in agricultural production and are relatively persistent in soil with long half-lives. It is thus necessary to develop a cost-effective design of strategies for the removal of herbicides from groundwater and soil surfaces, as well as to control herbicide diffusion into soils. Herein, tea-stalk-derived biomass carbons (BCs) and graphitized biomass carbon (GBCs) with high specific surface areas (SSA) were fabricated through facile hydrolysis and chemical activation pathways, which exhibited superior atrazine adsorption/release behaviors. The maximum equilibrium adsorption capacity of GBCs was ca. 180 mg g‑1. Moreover, the sustainable adsorption and controlled release of atrazine by using BCs and GBCs as carriers were investigated in both water and soil. The atrazine release was fairly quick in pristine soil, and as a result, ca. 85% of the cumulated atrazine was released after 20 runs of watering. By contrast, the BCs- and GBCs-amended soils showed significantly reduced atrazine release varying from ca. 3.5% to ca. 36% (cumulative release). In interception experiments, the retention rate of GBC-500 and GBC-700 could be maintained above 90% after 20 runs of watering. These results also suggested that the high SSA and aromaticity of GBCs could reduce the mobility of atrazine, which might favor the sustainable usage and fixation of triazine herbicides. Therefore, the proposed strategy offers an alternative pathway for the remediation of water and soil contaminated by triazine herbicides in agricultural production.