Coassisted carbonization with HCOOK/(HCOO)2Ca for the fabrication of bamboo-derived oxygen-doped porous carbons exhibiting high-performance sorption of diethyl phthalate from aqueous solutions

•A coassisted method with HCOOK/(HCOO)2Ca was proposed to prepare porous carbons.•Porous carbons displayed excellent pore structures and abundant oxygen contents.•Porous carbons showed a high sorption quantity for diethyl phthalate: 761 mg g−1.•Pore filling, hydrogen bonding and π-π stacking dominated the sorption process.