Self-forming salt-assisted synthesis of SiC nanoparticles and their adsorption property for methylene blue from aqueous solution

SiC nanoparticles were synthesized by the carbothermal reduction of carbonaceous silica xerogel with self-forming NaCl salt prepared from sodium silicate and sucrose as sources, and ferric nitrate as an additive. The products obtained by heating the xerogel at 1150 °C for 6 h in argon flow (200 ml/min) were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), and Brunauer–Emmett–Teller (BET) method. The results show that the SiC samples to be mainly composed of porous and blocky-shaped particles consisting of fine irregular particles with 50–100 nm average size, high surface area (27.1 m2/g) and pore volume (0.052 cm3/g). The SiC nanoparticles showed excellent adsorption of MB from aqueous solutions, the adsorption efficient reaching 86.4%, and the adsorption capacity being 14.4 mg/g.