Adsorption of uremic toxins by modified activated carbon of different mesh with sulfuric acid

Abstract

End-stage renal disease is a global health issue, and there is a growing trend of younger individuals being affected by this condition. In order to save time for patient undergoing dialysis treatment and allow them to return to social life, a portable dialysis device called wearable artificial kidney is quite necessary. The dialysate recycling system serves as a fundamental component of the wearable artificial kidney. It effectively eliminates various toxins from the waste dialysate and gets regenerated dialysate for subsequent dialysis sessions. However, the low capacity of urea treatment has been a difficult problem to overcome. In this study, our primary focus was to investigate the optimal modification conditions for activated carbon modified with sulfuric acid. We fabricated water vapor activation of coconut shell activated carbon and modified activated carbon of various mesh sizes with sulfuric acid solution. The samples were subjected to characterization, and adsorption experiments were conducted to evaluate their performance in adsorbing creatinine and urea. It was ultimately concluded that the samples obtained by treating 200 mesh activated carbon with 6 mol/L sulfuric acid solution exhibited superior adsorption capacity.