Porous carbons derived from one-pot carbonization and activation of wood sawdust in a molten salt (LiCl-KCl) medium were employed for Hg⁰ removal. The carbons derived from molten salt carbonization (MSC) displayed much superior Hg⁰ removal performance comparing with the carbons derived from N₂ pyrolysis method (NC). The best molar ratio of LiCl-KCl was 59:41, the optimal molten salt temperature was 700 °C, and the best mass ratio of wood sawdust to molten salt was 1:10. The MSC displayed good applicability at 50–125 °C. The saturation Hg⁰ adsorption capacity of MSC was about 7828.39 μg·g⁻¹, far exceeding those for carbonaceous adsorbents reported in literatures. A Hg⁰ removal mechanism over MSC was proposed, i.e., the hierarchical porous structure accelerated mass transfer of Hg⁰, and the CO groups served as electron acceptors from Hg⁰ atoms to form organic matter bonded mercury (Hg-OM). The molten salt could be easily separated from the mixture of MSC for recycling multiple times. Thus, molten salt carbonization method appears to be promising in one-pot carbonization and activation of biomass as efficient adsorbents for gaseous Hg⁰.

多孔碳来源于在熔融盐 (LiCl-KCl) 介质中的木锯屑的一锅碳化和活化，用于 Hg ⁰去除。与来自N ₂热解法(NC)的碳相比，来自熔盐碳化(MSC)的碳表现出更优异的Hg ^{0去除性能。}LiCl-KCl的最佳摩尔比为59:41，最佳熔盐温度为700 ℃，木屑与熔盐的最佳质量比为1:10。MSC 在 50–125 °C 下表现出良好的适用性。MSC的饱和Hg ⁰吸附量约为7828.39 μg·g ^-1，远超文献报道的碳质吸附剂。汞⁰提出了MSC上的去除机理，即分层多孔结构加速了Hg ⁰的传质，CO基团作为Hg ⁰原子的电子受体形成有机物键合汞（Hg-OM）。熔盐可以很容易地从 MSC 的混合物中分离出来，以便多次循环利用。因此，熔盐碳化法作为气态Hg ⁰的有效吸附剂，在生物质的一锅碳化和活化方面看起来很有前景。