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

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 degrees C and 0 degrees 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 degrees 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 N-2 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. (C) 2020 Published by Elsevier B.V. on behalf of The Research Centre for Eco-Environmental Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences.