Coupled soft-template/hydrothermal process synthesis of mesoporous carbon spheres from liquefied larch sawdust

Mesoporous carbon spheres (CSs) with tunable morphology and pore structure were prepared from liquefied larch sawdust by coupling the soft-template and hydrothermal methods. The morphology and size of the CSs could be controlled by changing the concentration of F127 (PEO-PPO-PEO), and the pore structure could be tuned by changing the carbonization temperature. The results showed that perfect CSs were achieved when the concentration of F127 was 6%. The morphology changed from spherical to raspberry-like and the particle size decreased with increasing F127 concentration. The pore structure transformed from spiral-like, to vermicular-like, to wave-like as the carbonization temperature was increased. In contrast, the pore size showed a decreasing tendency under the same conditions. The adsorption capacity of CSs for Mn (II), Cd (II), Pb (II) and Cr (III) increased with increasing of carbonization temperature. The adsorption capacity of CSs for removal Pb (II) can reach 75%.