Superior CO2 uptake on nitrogen doped carbonaceous adsorbents from commercial phenolic resin

Abstract

In this study, N-doped porous carbons were produced with commercial phenolic resin as the raw material, urea as the nitrogen source and KOH as the activation agent. Different from conventional carbonization-nitriding-activation three-step method, a facile two-step process was explored to produce N-incorporated porous carbons. The as-obtained adsorbents hold superior CO2 uptake, i.e. 5.01 and 7.47 mmol/g at 25 °C and 0 °C under 1 bar, respectively. The synergistic effects of N species on the surface and narrow micropores of the adsorbents decide their CO2 uptake under 25 °C and atmospheric pressure. These phenolic resin-derived adsorbents also possess many extremely promising CO2 adsorption features like good recyclability, quick adsorption kinetics, modest heat of adsorption, great selectivity of CO2 over N2 and outstanding dynamic adsorption capacity. Cheap precursor, easy preparation strategy and excellent CO2 adsorption properties make these phenolic resin-derived N-doped carbonaceous adsorbents highly promising in CO2 capture.