Controllable synthesis of N-doped hollow mesoporous carbon with tunable structures for enhanced toluene adsorption

Mesoporous hollow carbon spheres have been considered as promising adsorbents for volatile organic compounds (VOCs) removal. However, the influence of the morphologies and structures on the adsorption performance of VOCs is still unclear. Herein, we developed a novel strategy for the controllable synthesis of nitrogen-doped mesoporous hollow carbon nanomaterials with adjustable morphologies and structures. By simply tuning tetraethyl orthosilicate addition time and ammonia amount in Stöber system, bowl-like, hollow, and yolk-shell carbon nanomaterials can be obtained. When used as toluene adsorbents, the bowl-like materials exhibited a capacity of 190 mg/g, higher than other carbon materials with different morphologies. The high adsorption capacity and fast adsorption rate of the bowl-like structures can be attributed to the high surface area, rich microporous/mesoporous structure and unique morphology. Our work provides a new strategy for the designed synthesis of novel VOCs adsorbents with advanced adsorption performance.