Three-dimensional porous nitrogen-doped carbon aerogels derived from cellulose@mof for efficient removal of dye in water

Abstract

Three-dimensional porous nitrogen-doped carbon aerogels are synthesized by one-step carbonization of bacterial cellulose@zeolitic imidazolate framework-8 (ZIF-8) composite aerogels. The uniformly distributed Zn nanoparticles in the carbon aerogels gradually volatilize during the calcination process, and a large number of mesopores are formed in situ. After carbonization at 1000 °C, nitrogen-doped carbon aerogels (C-BZ-1000) show excellent hydrophilicity and the three-dimensional macroporous structure of composite aerogels is well preserved. The obtained C-BZ-1000 aerogels with hierarchical porous structure have large specific surface area and low density of 0.005 g cm−3, thereby realizing fast diffusion of methylene blue (MB) molecular. They have excellent adsorption performance, and the equilibrium adsorption of MB in simulated industrial wastewater can reach 227 mg g−1, which was 1.4 times higher than that of nanoporous carbon obtained by carbonization of ZIF-8 and 4.7 times higher than carbon aerogels obtained by carbonization of BC, respectively. Importantly, this current approach can be extended to more metal-organic framework and biomass materials for the design and fabrication of various advanced multifunctional materials.