Polyacrylonitrile-derived nitrogen enriched porous carbon fiber with high CO2 capture performance

Carbon dioxide capture and storage are considered a creative strategy for eliminating the catastrophic effect of global warming. The main concept in the present paper is to prepare nitrogen (N)-doping microporous carbon fibers and investigate their CO2 adsorption and separation process. Herein, N-doped porous carbon with an abundance of nitrogen groups (N doping > 15 wt%), a preserved fibril morphology, a BET surface area of 2434 m2/g together with a pore volume of 1.23 cm3 g-1 was produced from polyacrylonitrile fiber via chemical activation of K2CO3. The optimal porous carbon fiber sample has CO2 adsorption capacity of up to 3.83 and 5.84 mmol g-1 at 25 and 0 degrees C under 1 bar, respectively, a fast adsorption rate and high selectivity of the CO2 over N2. It has been found that the maintained fibrous morphology, the micro-mesoporous structure, and plentiful basic N-containing functionalities within the carbon framework all contribute to the outstanding CO2 capture performance.