Synthesis of flower-like porous MgO microspheres via a gas-liquid interfacial reaction

The flower-like porous MgO was obtained via a interfacial reaction following by further calcination. In the interfacial reaction, flower-like basic magnesium carbonate microspheres (precursor) were prepared by using magnesium chloride hexahydrate, ammonium carbonate, aqueous ammonia and water as starting materials. The formation mechanism of these basic magnesium carbonate microspheres has been proposed. The as-obtained hierarchical porous MgO showed an ultra-high adsorption capacity for Congo red (5051 mg g−1). This study provides a convenient strategy for synthesizing hierarchical porous MgO microspheres with great adsorption ability.