Facile preparation of well dispersed uniform, porous carbon microspheres and their use as a new chromatographic adsorbent

•We prepared uniform micron-sized mesoporous carbon spheres via a facile method.•The average size can be tuned while remaining the uniformity.•The spheres are special for their morphology and bimodal porous structure.•The spheres can be used as a chromatographic sorbent.

Well dispersed uniform porous carbon microspheres were obtained through facile polymerization-induced colloid aggregation and carbonization process. The effect of the preparatory conditions on the properties of the prepared samples has been analyzed. The average size of the microspheres could be tuned while maintaining the uniformity of the spheres. Detailed characterization of the samples reveals that the carbon microspheres prepared in this study have large surface area signified by the presence of both mesopores and micropores. The properties make these spheres ideal for use as a chromatographic adsorbent. The chromatographic column packed by the prepared porous carbon microspheres with average diameter of 5.2 µm has shown a great separation performance for hydrophilic compound mixtures.