N-doped
magnetic porous carbon (N-MPC) is an emerging adsorbent
for water pollution control. However, high cost and multisteps procedure
make the direct fabrication of N-MPCs difficult until now. Herein,
highly dispersed N-MPCs were synthesized by a facial one-pot solid-state
pyrolysis strategy. Heating the mixture of ZnO, Co(OH)2, and 2-methylimidazole (HmIm), Zn/Co bimetallic ZIFs formed at the
initial stages, being the primary self-template to produce N-MPCs
during subsequent high-temperature treatment. By altering the pyrolysis
temperature and the molar ratio of ZnO/Co(OH)2 in the precursor,
the magnetism, nitrogen content, and surface areas of N-MPCs can be
easily controlled. Due to its high special surface areas and the decoration
of abundant nitrogen functional groups (pyrrole-N and pyridinic-N),
the optimized N-MPC-700-7/3 exhibited a superior adsorption performance
for Hg2+ uptake (489 mg g–1). Moreover,
the N-MPCs exhibited fast dynamics in adsorption (K
2 = 0.47 g mg–1 min–1) and good chemical stability. The simple, sustainable, and impressive
method provides an attractive way to manufacture efficiency MPC sorbents,
and the prepared N-MPCs merit good application potential in environmental
remediation.