Derivative carbon particles with different sizes from ZIF-8 and their adsorption capacity for MB

Metal–organic framework materials (MOFs), as adsorbents, have been widely used in the adsorptive removal of dyes from water due to their adjustable composition, diverse structures and controllable pore size. However, in some harsh environments, most MOFs would lose their stability, limiting their scale-up applications. Porous carbon materials derived from MOFs can inherit the MOFs’ advantages of large surface area, high porosity and pore structure customizability; simultaneously, the derived carbonaceous materials possess superior chemical stability in harsh environments. Here, zeolitic imidazolate framework-8 (ZIF-8) particles with different sizes are synthesized and then charred at 950 °C in an argon atmosphere. Consequently, we harvest the ZIF-8-derived carbonaceous particles which retain the shapes of their parental MOFs and exhibit different sizes. Compared to their parental MOFs, the derived carbon particles present shrinkage in size. Specially, the MOF particles with the smallest size show the highest shrinkage (43%) during carbonization. According to the results of N 2 ad/desorption test, the derived carbon particles from the ZIF-8 particles with the largest size possess the largest specific surface area (1144 m 2 g –1 ), which also present superior adsorption capacity (1461.988 mg g –1 ) for methylene blue (MB) from aqueous solution.