Functional molecular engineering hierarchical pore-interface based on thermodynamic-kinetic synergy strategy for efficient CO2 capture and separation

Abstract

The concern of traditional CO2 adsorbents on business cost and low CO2 adsorption/separation performance have motivated the production of efficient porous carbons adsorbents from green cheap materials. Combining the tailoring process of pore structure of materials with microscopic surface functionalization engineering, and constructing the relationship between kinetics/thermodynamics and adsorption selectivity at the molecular level, are the key issues to reveal the competition mechanism of adsorption and separation of CO2/N2 mixtures in science-engineer field. In this work, the nitrogen-groups modified porous carbon microspheres materials (MNPCS) were fabricated from cheap glucose via a creative ethanol-assisted hydrothermal technology. The reasonable design of pore effect and functionalized molecular configuration guaranteed the maximization of thermodynamic-kinetic synergistic effect, and enhanced the adsorption performance and stability in the separation of CO2 from flue gas. Impressively, MNPCS exhibits superior CO2 properties (4.77 mmol/g) and high efficiency separation (the selectivity of CO2/N2 (vol15%: vol85%) reached 56.9) at 313 K. More importantly, MNPCS balances CO2 adsorption performance and regeneration heat via selection of functional groups configuration and 3d-hierarchical porous structure design, which guarantees high CO2 adsorption properties and low regenerative heat. Comprehensively, the excellent CO2 adsorption performance, water resistance, stability and low energy consumption of MNPCS make it have great prospects in industrial application.