Preparation and weak acid dark blue adsorption studies of melamine formaldehyde-based nanoporous carbon

Abstract

A nitrogen-enriched wormhole-like nanoporous carbon has been prepared from melamine formaldehyde resin by a simple one-step nanocasting method. Results indicate that the obtained three-dimensional carbon nanonetwork is wormhole like. The pore size distribution is narrow with a mean value of 4.7 nm, which is calculated from the desorption branch by Barrett–Joyner–Halenda method. The Brunauer–Emmett–Teller surface area and the nitrogen content of the sample are high up to 521 m²/g and 21%, respectively. The as-obtained carbon nanomaterial is very highly mesoporous, in which the mesopore content is up to 70%. Adsorption experiments show that the obtained material has better adsorption performance than commercial activated carbon. The adsorption efficiency was up to 94.7% at the concentration of 0.05 mg/mL, while activated carbon is only 25.4% in the research.