Facile synthesis of microporous carbonaceous materials derived from a covalent triazine polymer for CO2 capture

Abstract

Highly porous nitrogen-doped carbon materials were synthesized by the carbonization of a low-cost porous covalent triazine polymer, PCTP-3, which had been synthesized by the AlCl3 catalyzed Friedel-Crafts reaction of readily available monomers. The nature of the bond and structure of the resulting materials were confirmed using various spectroscopic methods, and the effects of KOH activation on the textural properties of the porous carbon materials were also examined. The KOH-activated porous carbon (aPCTP-3c) materials possessed a high surface area of 2271 m2 g−1 and large micro/total pore volumes of 0.87/0.95 cm3 g−1, respectively, with narrower micropore size distributions than the porous carbon prepared without activation (PCTP-3c). The aPCTP-3c exhibited the best CO2 uptakes of 284.5 and 162.3 mg g−1 and CH4 uptakes of 39.6 and 25.9 mg g−1 at 273 and 298 K/1 bar, respectively, which are comparable to the performance of some benchmark carbon materials under the same conditions. The prepared materials exhibited high CO2/N2 selectivity and could be regenerated easily.