Nitrogen-doped graphene-like carbon material derived via a simple, cost-effective method as an excellent adsorbent for methylene blue adsorption

Abstract

Nitrogen-enriched graphene-like carbon materials were successfully prepared via pyrolysis of a mixture of melamine, ammonia chloride (NH4Cl) and polyvinyl pyrrolidone (PVP) at a mild temperature without inert gas protection. Different techniques were used to analyze the physical and chemical properties of the products. All the prepared materials showed excellent performance in methylene blue (MB) adsorption, In particular, the materials prepared with 3 g polyvinyl pyrrolidone (PVP) (NCG-2) exhibited the best performance, a very high maximum adsorption capacity of 348.2 mg/g, much larger than many reported materials. The high adsorption capacity of the Nitrogen-doped graphene-like carbon materials was possible due to its uniform porous structure, high specific surface area. Moreover, NCG-2 could be recycled and only a only slightly decreased in the removal efficiency were observed after 5 cycles.