title: Mechanisms on formation of hierarchically porous carbon and its adsorption behaviors.
abstract: Using simple one-step carbonization-activation, the residues of paulownia flowers are employed as a precursor to prepare hierarchically porous activated carbon. After investigating the optimum conditions, the obtained paulownia flowers based activated carbon (PFAC) is characterized by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, scanning electron microscope, transmission electron microscope, Brunauer-Emmett-Teller specific surface area analysis (S(BET)), thermo gravimetric analysis, and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. The PFAC owns a high specific surface area of 1,053 m(2)/g as well as a hierarchically porous structure with a combination of micro-, meso- and macropores. The pore-forming mechanism is discussed according to results of characterization. Using methylene blue as model dye, the adsorption behaviors of PFAC were investigated. We found that the dye could be rapidly adsorbed by hierarchically porous PFAC, and the adsorption capacity of PFAC reached 300 mg/g.
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory Eco-Environment-Related Polymer Materials of Ministry of Education, College of Chemistry & Chemical Engineering, Northwest Normal University, Lanzhou 730070, China E-mail: heyufeng@nwnu.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Jie
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory Eco-Environment-Related Polymer Materials of Ministry of Education, College of Chemistry & Chemical Engineering, Northwest Normal University, Lanzhou 730070, China E-mail: heyufeng@nwnu.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Lingxia
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Hao
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory Eco-Environment-Related Polymer Materials of Ministry of Education, College of Chemistry & Chemical Engineering, Northwest Normal University, Lanzhou 730070, China E-mail: heyufeng@nwnu.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Wenzhen
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Qian
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory Eco-Environment-Related Polymer Materials of Ministry of Education, College of Chemistry & Chemical Engineering, Northwest Normal University, Lanzhou 730070, China E-mail: heyufeng@nwnu.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Yu-Feng
authors.initials: YF
authors.lastname: He
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory Eco-Environment-Related Polymer Materials of Ministry of Education, College of Chemistry & Chemical Engineering, Northwest Normal University, Lanzhou 730070, China E-mail: heyufeng@nwnu.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Rong-Min
authors.initials: RM
authors.lastname: Wang
mesh_terms: D000327:Adsorption; D002606:Charcoal / Q000737:chemistry*; D008751:Methylene Blue / Q000737:chemistry; D056951:Photoelectron Spectroscopy; D016062:Porosity; D017550:Spectroscopy, Fourier Transform Infrared
chemical_list: D002606:Charcoal; D008751:Methylene Blue