A magnetic nanocomposite of ordered mesoporous carbon (CMK-3) decorated with nickel nanoparticles was synthesized successfully by a simple chemistry method. Nickel nanoparticles were prepared and uniformly supported on ordered mesoporous carbon CMK-3 by reduction route with CMK-3 as
a reducing agent at 673 K. The Ni/CMK-3 composite materials were characterized by powder X-ray diffraction, nitrogen sorption, and transmission electron microscopy. As-prepared nickel nanoparticles supported on CMK-3 were crystalline with a face-center-cubic phase and a size distribution ranging
from 10 to 60 nm. The BET special surface area and pore volume of Ni/CMK-3 were as high as 797 m2 g−1 and 0.72 cm3 g−1, respectively. The formation mechanism of the nickel nanoparticles outside the surface of CMK-3 was preliminarily discussed.
The hysteresis loops of the CMK-3 decorated with nickel nanoparticles were measured by vibrating sample magnetometer (VSM), and the results showed that the composite was ferromagnetism with the saturated magnetization of 15 emu/g, and the coercivity value of 214 Oe. Furthermore, the application
of Ni/CMK-3 as magnetically separable adsorbent for vitamin B2 was primarily examined in this study.