Activated porous carbon derived from sawdust for CO2 capture

Abstract

Mitigation of greenhouse gas emissions, especially CO2, highlights the critical demand for efficient CO2 capture technologies. This is due to their essential role in climate change and their profound impact on global ecosystems and human well-being. Activated carbons have emerged as promising candidates for CO2 capture due to their availability, cost-effectiveness, and tunable properties. In this study, activated carbons were synthesized from sawdust carbonized at various temperatures within the 700–1100 °C range and subsequently activated using CO2. Comprehensive characterization was conducted through SEM, FESEM, XRD, TGA, and FTIR techniques to assess the properties. The results reveal that carbonization at 1000 °C yielded an activated carbon with a hierarchical and microporous structure, featuring surface area, pore volume, and pore size of 1651.34 m2/g, 0.69 cm³/g, and <1.76 nm, respectively. Remarkably, this activated carbon exhibited promising CO2 uptake of 9.2 mmol/g at 25 °C and 1 bar. Moreover, a remarkable recyclability over 10 cycles demonstrates its potential for practical CO2 capture applications. Furthermore, the synthesized activated carbon exhibited high selectivity for CO2 over N2 (85/15 v/v), reaching 40.2 at 1 bar and 25 °C. These findings underscore the viability of the as-prepared activated carbon as a desired candidate for efficient and selective CO2 capture, contributing to the ongoing efforts to mitigate the impact of anthropogenic CO2 emissions to the environment.