IR radiation assisted preparation of KOH-activated polymer-derived carbon for methylene blue adsorption

[Display omitted] •Polymer-derived activated carbons were prepared by a novel procedure involving IR radiation.•Incoherent IR radiation provides a decrease of activation time down to a couple of minutes.•Obtained chitosan- and polyacrylonitrile-derived carbons are efficient MB adsorbents.•Monolayer adsorption capacity of CS- and PAN-based ACMs was 642.1 and 683.8 mg g-1. A novel procedure of highly-porous polymer-derived carbon preparation was developed. Activated carbon materials (ACMs) based on carbonized chitosan and polyacrylonitrile were prepared via infrared (IR) heating assisted KOH activation. IR radiation provides the significant reduction of the residence time to 2 min at the activation temperature. The chitosan- and polyacrylonitrile-derived ACMs obtained at 800 °C are characterized by a microporous structure and have a specific surface area of 2259 and 2438 m2 g-1, respectively. The prepared ACMs were proposed as adsorbents for purification of pollutants in water systems. Methylene blue adsorption properties of the chitosan- and polyacrylonitrile-derived ACMs were studied. The prepared samples were best described by Langmuir adsorption model. According to this model, the developed ACMs exhibited the maximum capacity values of 642.1 and 683.8 mg g-1 for chitosan- and polyacrylonitrile-derived carbons, respectively.