Hierarchical porous ceramic adsorbents with nanofibrous-granular composite structure for efficient dye removal

Designing high-performance ceramic adsorbent with a wide spectrum of properties such as regulatable pore structure, high surface area, ultrahigh organic dye removal efficiency and renewability in an affordable and rational approach is vital for real-life applications. However, integrating all these individual functionalities simultaneously into one bulky material is still challenging. Herein, hierarchical porous ceramic adsorbents with nanofibrous-granular composite structure were proposed via colloidal co-assembly of coal-containing kaolin waste and silicon to resolve the above conflicting demands. Such structure endows the resultant products with satisfactory surface area of 52 m2 g-1, ultrahigh malachite green removal efficiency of 97.6%, outstanding adsorption capacity of 97.6 mg/g, excellent renewability after calcining at 500 degrees C. Such ceramic adsorbent provides a sustainable and feasible strategy for fabricating water purification materials.