Aerosol-Assisted Self-Assembly of Reticulated N-Doped Carbonaceous Submicron Spheres for Effective Removal of Hexavalent Chromium

This Research Article described a facile one-step method to prepare reticulated N-doped carbonaceous submicron spheres. Through a simple aerosol-assisted technology, glucosamine sulfate used as a carbon source was aerosolized and carbonized to functionalized carbonaceous submicron spheres. The electrostatic attraction between protonated amino groups and sulfate in the aerosol droplets induced a self-assembly and led to the formation of reticular structure, avoiding the use of templates. Compared to bare carbonaceous materials produced from glucose, reticulated N-doped carbonaceous spheres exhibit higher efficiency in the removal of Cr(VI), where the doping of element nitrogen led to electrostatic attraction between protonated nitrogen and chromium ions, and reticulated structure created relatively higher surface area and pore volume, facilitating materials to contact with Cr(VI) ions. XPS characterization proved these novel N-doped carbonaceous materials could effectively transform Cr(VI) to less toxic Cr(III) because of the surface reducing groups. For the practical application, several factors including the initial pH, materials dosage and recycle numbers on the removal performance were studied.