Novel Synthetic Method for Magnetic Porous Carbon Materials for Efficient Adsorption of Organic Pollutants from Aqueous Solution

A novel method for the preparation of magnetic porous carbon materials (MPMs) with high specific surfaces was developed using hydroxymethylferrocene through the combination of chloromethylation, hypercross-linked polymerization, and vacuum carbonization. The MPMs were mainly composed of porous carbon and iron nanoparticles. The specific surface and maximum specific saturation magnetization of MPMs were 295.90 m²/g and 7.45 emu/g, respectively. Furthermore, organic dyes, organic pesticides, and antibiotics were chosen as model adsorbates to test the adsorption properties of MPMs. The adsorption capacity of MPMs for methyl red was up to 199.54 mg/g at 120 min, and the adsorption isotherm was proved to fit the Langmuir isotherm model. The reuse results confirmed that MPMs had an excellent regenerative capacity and reusability stability. Moreover, MPMs showed superior removal efficiency for the rice field pesticides (emamectin benzoate, imidacloprid) and antibiotics (ampicillin). The above observations demonstrated that MPMs were universal to organic pollutants and would be one of the most promising candidates in the water purification filed.