High‐Performance CO 2 Adsorption of Nitrogen‐Doped Porous Carbons Synthesized From Coal Waste Precursors

Intensifying global climate change and continuously increasing CO 2 emissions make the development of efficient, low‐cost CO 2 capture technologies a critical global challenge. Porous carbon materials have emerged as a research hotspot in CO 2 adsorption due to their high specific surface areas, tunable pore structures, and modifiable surface chemistry. In this study, coal tar pitch, anthracite, lignite, and blue‐coke were employed as precursors to prepare and characterize porous carbons via KOH chemical activation and urea‐assisted nitrogen doping, and their CO 2 adsorption performance was investigated. Experimental results demonstrate that the coal‐derived porous carbons exhibit superior structural characteristics, including an ultrahigh specific surface area (up to 3304 m 2 /g), hierarchical pore architecture, and abundant surface functional groups. Nitrogen doping significantly enhanced surface alkalinity and chemical adsorption capacity, achieving a CO 2 adsorption capacity of 162.1 mg/g at 0.3 MPa—a 25% improvement compared to undoped counterparts. Dynamic adsorption tests revealed good cyclic stability, with adsorption capacity recovery rates of 88.5%–96.6% after 30 min N 2 purging and complete regeneration within 60‐min purging. This study demonstrates coal‐based porous carbons’ excellent PSA performance, highlighting their potential as efficient, low‐cost adsorbents for industrial CO 2 capture and CCUS applications.