Facile synthesis of a nitrogen-doped carbon membrane for CO2 capture

Abstract

A controllable one-pot method to synthesize a nitrogen-doped carbon membrane by pyrolysis of urea/novalac resin composite on a green novalac resin support is reported. The microporosity was increased by decomposition of the urea during pyrolysis without post-treatment. Further, the presence of nitrogen in the resulting carbon membrane significantly increased the CO2 adsorption capacity of carbon membrane, which led to a reduction in CO2 permeance. The carbon membrane showed high H2 and N2 permeances of 4.2×10−6 and 0.74×10−6molm−2s−1Pa−1, and moderate H2/CO2 and N2/CO2 ideal selectivities of 9.2 and 1.6, respectively. This carbon membrane may have potential applications for efficient CO2 capture from industrial mixtures at high temperatures.