Abstract Mesoporous carbons are widely utilized as adsorbents for adsorptive removal of nitrogen-containing compounds in fuel. Herein, hollow mesoporous carbon nanospheres (HMCNs) were successfully synthesized via a facile silica-assisted sol-gel strategy and further oxidized by different acids (HNO3, H2SO4, and (NH4)2S2O8) to adjust their surface chemistry. The HMCNs oxidized with (NH4)2S2O8 contain the most oxygen-containing groups and exhibit the strongest acidity, resulting in high adsorption capacities towards quinoline (QUI, 29.78 mgN·g−1) and indole (IND, 26.59 mgN·g−1) in model fuel. The superior performance is attributed to the acid-base interaction and hydrogen bonding interaction between the adsorbent and QUI/IND molecules. Remarkably, the adsorption capacity towards nitrogen-containing compounds in real diesel is as high as 19.19 mgN·g−1 at 50 oC. Our work has paved the way to the rational design and synthesis of high-performance adsorbents for the removal of nitrogen-containing compounds in real diesel on a large scale.

中文翻译：

---

调节中空介孔碳纳米球的表面酸度以增强燃料的吸附脱氮

摘要 介孔碳作为吸附剂被广泛用于吸附去除燃料中的含氮化合物。在此，中空介孔碳纳米球 (HMCN) 通过简便的二氧化硅辅助溶胶-凝胶策略成功合成，并通过不同的酸（HNO3、H2SO4 和 (NH4)2S2O8）进一步氧化以调整其表面化学。用 (NH4)2S2O8 氧化的 HMCNs 含有最多的含氧基团并表现出最强的酸性，导致对喹啉（QUI，29.78 mgN·g-1）和吲哚（IND，26.59 mgN·g-1）的高吸附容量在模型燃料中。优异的性能归功于吸附剂和QUI/IND分子之间的酸碱相互作用和氢键相互作用。值得注意的是，实际柴油中对含氮化合物的吸附能力高达19。50 oC 时为 19 mgN·g-1。我们的工作为合理设计和合成高性能吸附剂以大规模去除实际柴油中的含氮化合物铺平了道路。