Electrode materials were prepared from activated carbonizates of walnut shell, apricot pits and shungite rock from “Bakyrchik” deposit, East Kazakhstan. Physicochemical characteristics of the obtained samples were studied by the Brunauer-EmettTaylor method, scanning electron microscopy, Raman spectroscopy and other methods. Electrochemical properties of the obtained materials were studied by the method of cyclic voltammetry. It was found that the samples have an amorphous structure. Samples based on plant raw materials after hydrothermal carbonization at 240 °С during 24 h, have more homogeneous and developed surface. Specific surface area of carbon containing materials based on apricot pits is 1300 m2/g, for those on the based on mineral raw material, it is 153 m2/g. It was shown that materials after hydrothermal carbonization can be used for catalytic purposes and electrodes after thermal carbonization for analytical and electrocatalytic purposes.Electrode obtained by HTC have electrocatalytic activity. CSC 240 has high background current (slope i/Е is 43 mА V–1 cm–2), low potential of the hydrogen electroreduction (more positive by ~ 0.5 V than samples based on plant raw materials). The reaction of DA determination is more pronounced on the electrodes obtained by HTC 240 °C, 24 h, due to the nature, carbon structure and high specific surface area of obtained samples.

This study explored the possibility of applying different carbon-based adsorbents for removal of benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene and o-xylene (BTEX) from indoor air in static and dynamic modes. To determine BTEX removal effectiveness, the approach based on solid-phase microextraction (SPME) in combination with gas chromatography – mass spectrometry (GC-MS) was used. In static mode, removal effectiveness of BTEX from indoor air using different carbon-based adsorbents (shungite, walnut shell, saxaul, apricot pits, activated charcoal, Tenax, carbon black) varied from 80% to 100%. Optimal preparation conditions for shungite-basedadsorbent are no activation and addition of NaOH at 1:0.8 ratio. Shungite-based adsorbent was not able to remove BTEX from polluted indoor air at the flow rate 300 mL/min corresponding to the linear flow rate 25 cm/s, a minimum value for most commercial air purification systems. At the flow rate 75 mL/min (6.25 cm/s), a saturation time of shungite-based adsorbent made up 368 min for benzene and 437 min for toluene. At this flow rate, BTEX adsorption capacities of the shungitebased adsorbent were 0.3, 2.1, 0.2 and 0.3 µg/g, respectively. Compared to shungite, activated charcoal allowed the complete removal of BTEX at both flow rates in the whole studied time frame. Thus, shungite-based adsorbents are not recommended for BTEX removal from air because of much greater efficiencies of classic activated charcoal adsorbents. Applied methodology based on SPME-GC-MS allowed simple, fast and inexpensive collection of data and can be recommended as the analytical tool for developing new adsorbents and systems for air purification.