Preparation of ZnO-Incorporated Porous Carbon Nanofibers and Adsorption Performance Investigation on Methylene Blue

[Image: see text] To improve the adsorption performance of carbon materials, novel ZnO nanoparticle-incorporated porous carbon nanofibers (Zn@PCNFs) were prepared via an electrospinning technique. A facile one-step fabrication strategy was proposed to simultaneously complete the carbonization of a peroxided polyacrylonitrile framework, the activating treatment caused by ZnO reducing to Zn, and the pore generation caused by evaporation of reduced Zn with a low melting point. The influences of the pH, ion category, and concentration on methylene blue adsorption were investigated. The physical–chemical characterizations showed that ZnO was homogeneously distributed on the nanofibers and micropores were generated. The adsorption results revealed that an efficient adsorption was obtained within a large range of pH values through different adsorption models, which was accelerated by increasing the temperature. Therefore, the novel Zn@PCNFs are anticipated to be applied in the future as an effective dye waste adsorbent.