One-pot synthesis of purple benzene-derived MnO2-carbon hybrids and synergistic enhancement for the removal of cationic dyes.

MnO2-carbon hybrid (MnO2-C-PBz) was simultaneously synthesized by a one-step solution plasma process (SPP) using a single precursor referred to as "purple benzene", which was derived from the K+(dicyclohexano-18-crown-6 ether) complex. To clarify the synergistic effects on the cationic dye removal, MnO2-free carbon and carbon-free MnO2 samples were concurrently investigated. The results of adsorption for cationic dyes (methylene blue (MB) and rhodamine B (Rh B)) and anionic dye (methyl orange (MO)) revealed remarkably high affinity for cationic dyes. In particular, MnO2-C-PBz exhibited the highest adsorption capacity for MB, i.e., ~3 times greater than that of the others. In addition, MnO2-C-PBz exhibited a rapid, high decolorization ability at C0 = 10 mg L-1 (within a few seconds, ~99%) and at C0 = 100 mg L-1 (within 30 min, ~81%), and the theoretical maximum monolayer adsorption capacity was 357.14 mg g-1 as calculated from the Langmuir adsorption isotherm equation. Furthermore, compared with carbon-free MnO2, MnO2-C-PBz exhibited quite a good cyclic stability. We expect that our findings give rise to the understanding of the synergistic effects of MnO2-carbon hybrid, as well as role of each components for the cationic dye adsorption, and may open an innovative synthesis approach to inorganic-organic hybrid materials.