Bifunctional HNO3 catalytic synthesis of N-doped porous carbons for CO2 capture

N-doped porous carbons have been successfully fabricated via a facile one-pot evaporation induced self-assembly (EISA) method under acidic conditions. In this process, the used HNO3 not only promoted polymerization as a catalyst, but also served as a nitrogen source. The as-resulted porous carbons possessed a high specific surface area and a high nitrogen content (up to 6.73 wt%) and consequently they exhibited excellent CO2 capture performance. Particularly, the CN-950 sample with a high surface area of 1979 m(2) g(-1) shows the highest CO2 adsorption capacity of 4.30 mmol g(-1) at 298 K and 1 atm. Furthermore, it was observed that the CN-950 sample exhibited a high selectivity for CO2/N-2 separation, which is promising for industrial production.