Highly porous carbons with superior performance for CO2 capture through hydrogen-bonding interactions

Highly porous carbons were prepared by using polyaniline (PANI) as a carbon precursor and KOH as an activating agent via a one-step chemical activation process. The effects of the activation parameters such as activation temperature, KOH–PANI weight ratio and pre-heating temperature were fully investigated, through which the pore structure and the materials chemistry of the activated porous carbons were optimized. When studied as an adsorbent for CO2 capture, the optimized porous carbon exhibited a high CO2 capture capacity of 4.50 mmol g−1, high multi-cycle sorption/desorption stability and highly selective adsorption of CO2 over N2 (0.27 mmol g−1) at 25 °C. This superior performance for CO2 capture was found to be closely related to C–H groups on the carbon surface through hydrogen bonding interactions.