Activation of ordered mesoporous carbon nitride prepared via soft-template for CO2 adsorption

Abstract

A mesoporous carbon nitride material (MCN) was nanocasted by using a soft-template of triblock surfactant Pluronic F127, a carbon resource from resol and dicyandiamide (DCDA) as a nitrogen precursor. The obtained MCN was activated to improve its porous channel (AMCN). A reference sample of mesoporous carbon (MC) material was also prepared in the same protocol without DCDA. The tunable mesostructures (p6m symmetry) was proved by X-ray diffraction, transmission electron microscopy images and nitrogen adsorption-desorption isotherms. Fourier transformation infrared spectroscopy and energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy presented about 3.1 wt% of doped-nitrogen in the obtained MCN. In comparison to the MC, a significant increase of BET surface area (333 m2/g for MC, 414 m2/g for MCN and 951 m2/g for AMCN) and an enlargement of pore volume (0.23 cm3/g for MC, 0.25 cm3/g for MCN and 0.33 cm3/g for AMCN), which contributed to a noticeable enhancement of the room temperature CO2 uptake from 1.8 mmol/g (for MC) to 3.7 mmol/g (for MCN) and 4.1 mmol/g (for AMCN). This work emphasized that the assistance of DCDA and further activation resulted in enlargement of both pore volume and BET surface area promising a feasible application of MCN and AMCN in adsorption technology.