Jellyfish‐Derived Activated Carbon: Synthesis, Characterization, and Adsorption Performance

Activated carbon derived from jellyfish (JF) biomass offers a sustainable solution for water remediation, transforming invasive marine waste into high‐performance adsorbents. Here, said biomass is chemically activated with KOH after pyrolysis, yielding a material with a hierarchical porous structure (Brunauer–Emmett–Teller (BET) surface area of above 1000 m 2 g −1 ), surpassing commercial benchmarks, as confirmed by analyses. Adsorption experiments demonstrate rapid, high‐capacity removal of organic (methylene blue (MB), ≈30 wt%) and metallic (Pb + 2, ≈7 wt%) contaminants, outperforming commercial counterpart, with pseudosecond‐order kinetics indicating chemisorption dominance. Competitive adsorption experiments reveal Pb selectivity, suppressing MB uptake while boosting Pb capacity (≈1.7‐fold) which is attributed to lead–MB (Pb–MB) complexation. This first demonstration of chemically activated JF‐derived activated carbon establishes it as a superior, multifunctional adsorbent, addressing applications and enabling scalable waste valorization for pollutant removal.