Electrochemical adsorption of Zn2+ in wastewater by modified activated carbon felt.

In this paper, the activated carbon felt was modified by 20% HNO3 and its structure was characterized by SEM and FTIR. The modified active carbon felt was used as the adsorption electrode to study desalination effect and influencing factors further. The results showed that the carbonyl and carboxyl groups on active carbon felt increased, the specific surface area, the average pore size and the micropore volume enhanced by 32.2%, 2.5%, and 23.1%, respectively. The adsorption effect of Zn2+ was optimal in water when the voltage was 1.2V, pH was 6~8, and the electrode spacing was 5mm. The kinetic analysis showed that Zn2+ was adsorbed by modified activated carbon felt more closed to the quasi-two-stage kinetic equation, and the adsorption isotherms followed the Langmuir model. Moreover, the results of recycling experiment indicated that regeneration rate of modified activated carbon felt was more than 74% by using 20% HNO3 as the regeneration solution. This explained that modified activated carbon felt had a good reproducibility in the adsorption process of Zn2+. © 2018, Editorial Board of China Environmental Science. All right reserved.