Facile Construction of Mesoporous N‐Doped Carbons as Highly Efficient 4‐Nitrophenol Reduction Catalysts

Abstract

Abstract Herein we propose a novel in situ N‐doping method to develop a new type of mesoporous N‐doped carbons constructed by direct pyrolysis of properly rigid strut N‐rich metal–organic frameworks at 950 °C. This facile fabrication method creates doped N that is evenly dispersed on mesoporous carbons (≈4.0 nm) formed simultaneously without the need for a second carbon precursor, external nitrogen supplier, or pore‐forming agent. The resulting mesoporous N‐doped carbons bear a low N content but a high proportion of graphitic N species and exhibit superior catalytic performance toward the reduction of 4‐nitrophenol relative to that shown by previously reported metal catalysts and N‐doped graphene. The ensemble effect of the mesostructured framework and effective N doping is responsible for the excellent performance, as better diffusion, adsorption, and activation of 4‐nitrophenol in wastewaters are achieved through the elaborately fabricated mesoporous N‐doped carbons.