Synthesis of benzxazine-based nitrogen-doped mesoporous carbon spheres for methyl orange dye adsorption

In this work, nitrogen-doped mesoporous carbon spheres (NMCS) were synthesized through a hard template method by using benzoxazine resin as precursor and ordered mesoporous silica spheres as template. The obtained N-doped mesoporous carbons were amorphous spherical nanoparticles with worm-like mesoporous channels and possessed high surface area of 789 m²/g, large pore volume of 0.49 cm³/g and high nitrogen content of 3.50 wt.%. The adsorption capacity of methyl orange (MO) by NMCS could attain 352.1 mg/g at an optimal condition, while the adsorption capacity of MO by non-doped mesoporous carbon spheres (MCS) was 251.9 mg/g at the same condition. The adsorption process fitted the pseudo-second-order kinetic model and the Langmuir isotherm well. Thermodynamic analysis indicated that the removal of MO by NMCS was spontaneous, endothermic and feasible process. In addition, the adsorption capacity of regenerated adsorbent was 89.04% of the initial level after four regeneration cycles.