Preparation and characterization of octyl-modified ordered mesoporous carbon CMK-3 for phenol adsorption

Mesoporous carbon CMK-3 was prepared by using SBA-15 silica mesoporous molecular sieves as hard template. Then, octyl modified mesoporous carbon molecular sieves C8-CMK-3 was prepared through chemical oxidation of CMK-3 by ammonium persulfate and H2SO4 and esterification reaction with 1-octanol in m-xylol. Fourier transform infrared spectra (FT-IR) showed the presence of carboxyl and octyl group on C8-CMK-3. Powder XRD and TEM images indicated that the pore structure of CMK-3 was almost not destroyed after modification. Nitrogen adsorption–desorption measurements showed that surface areas, pore size, and pore volume had evident change after CMK-3 was modified by octyl group. The phenol adsorption test showed that the adsorption performance of CMK-3 was significantly improved after it was modified with alkyl chain.