Regenerable, innovative porous silicon-based polymer-derived ceramics for removal of methylene blue and rhodamine B from textile and environmental waters

The presence of residual color in treated textile wastewater above the regulation limits is still a critical issue in many textile districts. Innovative, polymer-derived ceramics of the Si–C–O system were here synthesized in order to obtain porous nanocomposite materials where a free carbon phase is dispersed into a silicon carbide/silicon oxycarbide network. The sorbents were comprehensively characterized for the removal of two model water-soluble dyes (i.e., the cation methylene blue and the zwitterion rhodamine B). Adsorption is very rapid and controlled by intra-particle and/or film diffusion, depending on dye concentration. Among the nanocomposites studied, the SiOC aerogel (total capacity about 45 mg/g, is easily regenerated under mild treatment (250 °C, 2 h). Adsorption of dyes is not affected by the matrix composition: removals of 150 mg/L methylene blue from river water and simulated textile wastewater with high content of metal ions (2–50 mg/L) and chemical oxygen demand (800 mg/L) were higher than 92% and quantitative for a dye concentration of 1 mg/L.