Carbonaceous material obtained from exhausted coffee by an aqueous solution combustion process and used for cobalt (II) and cadmium (II) sorption.

New carbonaceous materials were obtained using a fast aqueous solution combustion process from mixtures of exhausted coffee, ammonium nitrate (oxidizer) and urea (fuel) heated at 600, 700, 800 or 900 °C. The resulting powders were effective adsorbents for removing Co(II) and Cd(II) from aqueous solutions. Exhausted coffee was also calcined at different temperatures and compared. The products were characterized, and the obtained carbons had BET specific surface areas of 114.27-390.85 m(2)/g and pore diameters of 4.19 to 2.44 nm when the temperature was increased from 600 to 800 °C. Cobalt and cadmium adsorption by the carbonaceous materials was correlated with the maximum adsorption capacities and specific surface areas of the materials. The method reported here is advantageous because it only required 5 min of reaction to improve the textural properties of carbon obtained from exhausted coffee, which play an important role in the material's cobalt and cadmium adsorption capacities.