Preparation of chitosan-derived hierarchical porous materials and study on their adsorption of patulin

The selection of suitable porous materials as the adsorbent of mycotoxin is of great significance for food safety. In this work, hierarchical porous materials with high specific surface area and suitable pore size distribution were prepared by one-step carbonization method using chitosan and KMnO 4 as carbon precursors and activators, respectively. The best adsorption performance was achieved using the hierarchical porous materials prepared at carbonization temperature of 600 °C. The adsorption capacity and Brunauer-Emmett-Teller specific surface area was 8.4 μg/mg and 1800.76 m 2 g −1 , respectively. The adsorption of patulin on hierarchical porous materials conforms to the Langmuir and pseudo-second-order model. Moreover, the hierarchical porous materials did not have a significant effect on the nutrients of the apple juice. The adsorbents prepared herein has been found to be a good solution for the adsorption of patulin, owing to their easy preparation, low cytotoxicity, high efficiency, and good reusability.