Synthesis of mesoporous carbon nanospheres for highly efficient adsorption of bulky dye molecules

A facile synthesis route to the mesoporous carbon nanospheres (MCNs) with tunable size has been prepared via silica cooperative self-assembly using resorcinol as a polymer precursor, tetraethyl orthosilicate as an inorganic precursor, and hexadecyl trimethyl ammonium bromide and triblock copolymer Pluronic F127 as a co-template. The sizes of carbon nanospheres are uniform and easily controlled in the range of 80–170 nm by varying the content of F127. The MCNs exhibit promising properties for adsorption of bulky dye molecules due to their high specific surface area (1481 m² g⁻¹), large pore volume (2.55 cm³ g⁻¹), and dual mesoporous texture (4.1 and 24.1 nm). Kinetic and isothermal analysis demonstrates the strong interactions between dye molecules and the MCNs. Furthermore, the regenerated MCNs show quite stable adsorption performance, which can be reused for dye removal. The results demonstrated in this work should give a useful enlightenment for the design of adsorbent to remove organic pollutant in wastewater.