Eco-friendly and magnetic sucrose-derived Fe-containing mesoporous carbon composites for high-efficiency Congo red adsorption and supercapacitor applications

In this study, eco-friendly and magnetic sucrose-derived Fe-containing mesoporous carbon (Fe-MC) composites have been prepared by carbothermal reduction . The Fe-MC3-1000 prepared from sucrose and FeSO 4 with a mass ratio of 1:1 at 1000 °C has a uniform mesoporous structure with a BET surface area of 184 m 2 /g. The carbothermal reduction of Fe 2 O 3 had dual effects of the pore-forming and the loading. Batch adsorption experiments and electrochemical measurements show that the Fe-MC3-1000 has the optimum performance in both adsorption and supercapacitor applications. For adsorption, the maximum adsorption capacity for Congo red (CR) arrived at 972.1 mg g −1 with a removal percentage of 97.2 %. The adsorption process has good agreement with Langmuir isotherm and Elovich kinetic models . Besides, the Fe-MC3-1000 exhibits good recyclability after five adsorption-desorption cycles. For supercapacitor, the Fe-MC3-1000 electrode has a capacitance value of 179.23 F g −1 and a capacitance retention of 92.8 % at 10 A g −1 after 2000 cycles. The outstanding adsorption and electrochemical performances suggest that the Fe-MC3-1000 is a competitive bi-functional material for adsorption and supercapacitor.