Insight into highly efficient co-removal of p-nitrophenol and lead by nitrogen-functionalized magnetic ordered mesoporous carbon: Performance and modelling

[Display omitted] •Efficient Pb(II) and p-nitrophenol adsorption on N-Fe/OMC.•The mutual competition and enhancement of their mutual interaction were revealed.•Modelling of Pb(II) and PNP removal by taking into account sorption processes.•Give new insights on the development of OMC materials and advances its applications. Highly efficient simultaneous removal of Pb(II) and p-nitrophenol (PNP) contamination from water was accomplished by nitrogen-functionalized magnetic ordered mesoporous carbon (N-Fe/OMC). The mutual effects and inner mechanisms of their adsorption onto N-Fe/OMC were systematically investigated by sole and binary systems, and thermodynamic, sorption isotherm and adsorption kinetics models. The liquid-film diffusion step might be the rate-limiting step for PNP and Pb(II). The fitting of experimental data with Temkin model indicates that the adsorption process of PNP and Pb(II) involve physisorption and chemisorption. There exist site competition and enhancement of PNP and Pb(II) on the sorption to N-Fe/OMC. Moreover, N-Fe/OMC could be regenerated effectively and recycled by using dilute NaOH and acetone. These demonstrated superior properties of N-Fe/OMC indicate that it could be applied to treatment of wastewaters containing both lead and PNP.