General and controllable synthesis of novel mesoporous magnetic iron oxide@carbon encapsulates for efficient arsenic removal

A facile ammonia-atmosphere pre-hydrolysis post-synthetic route that can uniformly and selectively deposit Fe(2) O(3) nanoparticles in the predefined mesopores (5.6 nm) of a bimodal (2.3, 5.6 nm) mesoporous carbon matrix is demonstrated. The mesoporous magnetic Fe(2) O(3) @C encapsulates show excellent performance for arsenic capture with remarkable adsorption capacity, fast uptake rate, easy magnetic separation, and good cyclic stability.

Ordered mesoporous carbon coating on cordierite: synthesis and application as an efficient adsorbent

Ordered mesoporous carbon coating on the honeycomb cordierite substrate has been prepared using low-polymerized phenolic resins as carbon sources and triblock copolymer F127 as the structure directing agent via the evaporation induced self-assembly route. The high-resolution scanning electron microscopy (HRSEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), and nitrogen sorption techniques prove the hexagonally ordered pore arrays of carbon coating on the cordierite. The honeycomb monolith adsorbents coated by ordered mesoporous carbons are directly used without any activation, and exhibit adsorption capacities for chlorinated organic pollutants in water with 200 mg/g for p-chlorophenol and 178 mg/g for p-chloroaniline (with respect to the net carbon coating), high adsorption ratio for low-concentration pollutants, large processing volumes and reusability. More than 200 repeated times can be achieved without obvious loss in both adsorption capacity and weight.

Magnetic nanocomposites with mesoporous structures: synthesis and applications

Magnetic nanocomposites with well-defined mesoporous structures, shapes, and tailored properties are of immense scientific and technological interest. This review article is devoted to the progress in the synthesis and applications of magnetic mesoporous materials. The first part briefly reviews various general methods developed for producing magnetic nanoparticles (NPs). The second presents and categorizes the synthesis of magnetic nanocomposites with mesoporous structures. These nanocomposites are broadly categorized into four types: monodisperse magnetic nanocrystals embedded in mesoporous nanospheres, microspheres encapsulating magnetic cores into perpendicularly aligned mesoporous shells, ordered mesoporous materials loaded with magnetic NPs inside the porous channels or cages, and rattle-type magnetic nanocomposites. The third section reviews the potential applications of the magnetic nanocomposites with mesoporous structures in the areas of heath care, catalysis, and environmental separation. The final section offers a summary and future perspectives on the state-of-the art in this area.

Ordered mesoporous materials as adsorbents

Environmental pollution, energy consumption and biotechnology have induced more and more public concerns. Problems imposed by these issues will circulate in the 21st century. Adsorption-based processes may lead to one of the most efficient routes for removal of toxic substances, energy storage and bio-applications. The fundamental and great challenge is developing highly efficient adsorbents. In this regard, ordered mesoporous materials (OMMs) may be the answer in the future. They possess intrinsic high specific surface areas, regular and tunable pore sizes, large pore volumes, as well as stable and interconnected frameworks with active pore surfaces for modification or functionalization. Such features meet the requirements as excellent adsorbents, not only providing huge interface and large space capable of accommodating capacious guest species, but also enabling the possibility of specific binding, enrichment and separation. As a result, these materials have been extensively studied as advanced adsorbents and hundreds of papers have been published since the millennium. In this Highlight, we will mainly summarize and outlook the development in pollution control, gas storage and bioadsorption by using OMMs as adsorbents.

Ordered mesoporous carbon/α-alumina nanosheet composites

Novel α-alumina crystalline nanosheets are used for the preparation of alumina-carbon composites, in which the latter component is phenolic resin-based ordered mesoporous carbon. A unique feature of these composites is perpendicular orientation of ordered mesopores of the carbon to the (001) facets of nonporous α-alumina nanosheets accompanied by significant enlargement of these mesopores in comparison to those present in the bulk carbon.

Facile synthesis of porous Fe7Co3/carbon nanocomposites and their applications as magnetically separable adsorber and catalyst support

A facile co-gelation route has been developed to synthesize novel porous Fe(7)Co(3)/carbon composites with Fe(7)Co(3) nanoparticles embedded in the porous carbon matrix. The sol-gel process of this route simultaneously involves the hydrolysis of tetraethylorthosilicate (TEOS) and the polymerization of furfuryl alcohol (FA) within an ethanol solution containing TEOS, FA, and metal nitrates, which led to the inorganic/organic hybrid xerogel, accompanying metal salts spontaneously captured in the xerogel, mostly in the framework of poly(furfuryl alcohol) (PFA). Compared to the nanocasting route, the advantage of this method is that the formation of silica template and the impregnation of carbon precursor and metal salts were simultaneously carried out in one co-gelation process, which makes the synthesis very simple and eliminates the time-consuming synthesis of the silica template and multistep impregnation process. Different amounts of Fe(7)Co(3) can be introduced into the composites, which led to different pore structures and magnetic properties. The composites have large surface areas (as high as 651.4 m(2)/g) and high saturation magnetizations (as high as 31.2 emu/g). The Fe(7)Co(3)/carbon composites prepared were successfully applied to the removal of dyes from water and catalysis of hydrogenation as efficient magnetically separable adsober and catalyst support. The facile co-gelation route makes the scalable synthesis of magnetic porous carbon possible for application, and it also provides a promising path to the synthesis of nanoscale metal or alloy embedded in the porous carbon materials.