Facile Synthesis of Manganese Oxide-embedded Mesoporous Carbons and Their Adsorbability Towards Methylene Blue

Herein, a facile strategy to fabricate the novel manganese oxide-imprinted mesoporous carbons (MOPCx, x presents for pyrolysis temperature) was described via the direct pyrolysis of Mn(BDC)(DMF) (BDC = 1,4-benzenedicarboxylate, DMF = N,N-dimethylformamide) as a self-sacrificed template at various temperatures (x = 550, 750, and 950 C). The characterization results demonstrated the existence of MnO embedded in carbon structures with different morphologies, and enhancing surface areas (249.86-294.67 m/g) compared with their precursor (3.59 m/g). For methylene blue adsorption experiments, the MOPC pyrolyzed at 950 C (MOPC950) revealed the best candidate with maximum uptake capacity (124.1 mg/g), so far higher than other MOPCx and Mn(BDC)(DMF) materials. Finally, adsorption mechanisms involving H-bond, and π-π interaction were proposed via the chemisorption between surface functional groups (carboxyl, phenol, lactone, and base).