颗粒活性炭（GAC）从废水、地下水和饮用水中去除金属离子的能力被认为仅次于其去除有机物的能力。然而，由于没有一个水源不受重金属的潜在污染，人们对碳的多功能性越来越感兴趣，因为它能够同时去除两个问题:有机物和金属离子。本文的研究表明，可再生木材副产品橡木片产生的碳可能是现有材料的一种有竞争力的替代品，可以去除重金属和有机污染物。 与煤炭和其他常用材料不同，硬木价格便宜，可再生，容易获得。在这项研究中，制作了两个基于橡木片的碳样品，并与八种商用金属离子吸附剂进行比较，以确定橡木片碳作为工业废水处理和住宅水过滤器中的金属离子吸附剂的相对功效。据报道，与硬木相比，硬木对金属离子的吸附效果更好。 由于商用活性炭通常不能有效地吸附金属离子，作者声称，硬木基酸性活性炭可以作为可用于水和废水金属离子修复的活性炭填补一个重要的生态位。

The ability of granular activated carbons (GACs) to remove metal ions from wastewater, groundwater, and drinking water is considered secondary to their ability to remove organics. Yet, because no water source is free from potential contamination from heavy metals, there is growing interest in the versatility of a carbon to be able to remove two problems at once: organics and metal ions. The research in this article demonstrates that a carbon produced from renewable wood byproducts, oak chips, may be a competitive alternative to existing materials that can remove both heavy metal and organic contamination. Unlike coal and other commonly used materials, hardwood is cheap, renewable, and readily available. In this study, two oak chip-based carbon samples were produced and compared against eight commercially available metal-ion adsorbents to determine the relative efficacy of the oak chip carbons as a metal ion adsorbent in industrial wastewater treatment and residential water filters. In a side-by-side comparison, the authors illustrate that hardwood-based carbons perform well with reportedly good adsorption for metal ions. Because commercially-activated carbons generally do not adsorb metal ions effectively, the authors claim that hardwood-based acid-activated carbons could fill an important niche as carbons that can be used in metal ion remediation of water and wastewater.