Preparation of ordered porous carbon from tea by chemical activation and its use in Cr(VI) adsorption

Ordered porous carbon was prepared from a new carbon precursor—the tea leaves, the most widely used beverage worldwide by a chemical activation process. We obtained well developed spherical interlinked meso and micro pores with uniform pore morphology and high surface area from green, black and waste tea by NaOH as well as H3PO4 activation process. The carbon obtained from green tea by H3PO4 activation had the highest BET surface area of 1,285 m2g−1 with total pore volume of 0.6243 mL g−1. The as prepared porous carbon showed high adsorption efficiency of Cr(VI) adsorption from aqueous solution.