Synthesis of large pore sized mesoporous carbon using alumina-templated strategy for high-performance RhB removal

The mesoporous carbon dye adsorption materials were synthesized through a simple alumina-templated strategy. The morphology and structure were characterized by Xray diffraction, transmission electron microscopy, nitrogen adsorption–desorption and adsorption capacities of rhodamine B (RhB) were also tested. The results showed that the mesoporous carbon materials exhibit large BET surface area (1093.1 m2·g−1), large pore volume (3.03 cm3·g−1) and large pore size (21.9 nm) due to the consistence pore structure of carbon material and the template nanosheet γ -alumina. Therefore, the mesoporous carbon had high equilibrium adsorption amounts (374.3 mg·g−1) and fast adsorption rate of RhB (317.8 mg·g−1 at 5 min). We also explore the kinetic studies of carbon materials for RhB adsorption, indicating that the kinetics module fit the pseudo-second-order kinetic model and Langmuir model for isothermal adsorption theory. This study promotes a high efficient material for RhB dye adsorption and a promising candidate for toxic dye wastewater treatments. [Display omitted] •Phosphorus-modified method provide improvements for alumina template on specific surface area and pore size.•CCAP inherited the superior pore structural of alumina template and had a high mesopore ratio.•CCAP exhibits well efficient adsorption performance for RhB.