Facile one-pot synthesis of hierarchical N-doped porous carbon for efficient ibuprofen removal

Abstract Developing high-performance materials for the efficient removal of pharmaceutical contaminants from polluted water has gained tremendous attention but is still a huge challenge. Herein, various N-doped porous carbons (NPCs) were fabricated via a facile and solvent-free pyrolysis strategy by using a mixture of melamine, hexamethylenetetramine, Pluronic F 127, and ZnCl2 as precursor. The resulting NPCs featuring large specific surface areas (803–1002 m2/g) and high nitrogen content (3.79–5.24%) were used as efficient adsorbent for the capture of ibuprofen (IBP) from water. Due to the combination of abundant mesoporous and microporous structure as well as high nitrogen content, the adsorption equilibrium was achieved within 60 min and the adsorption capacity was calculated to be 113 mg/g. Furthermore, it was found that the adsorption capacity exhibited a good correlation with the nitrogen content. In addition, the adsorption capacity of the resulting NPC was well-maintained even after 4 cycles due to its superior stability. The study is expected to encourage the rational design and synthesis of versatile heteroatom-doped porous carbons for practical application in the field of environmental remediation.