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Synthesis of hollow micro-mesoporous nitrogen-doped carbon nanoparticles for enhanced CO2 capture

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Abstract

The design and synthesis of porous carbons with unique structures and diverse functionalities as CO2 adsorbents constitute a challenging and intriguing research topic. In this study, the synthesis of hollow micro-mesoporous nitrogen-doped carbon nanoparticles (NPCS) and its adsorption of CO2 were investigated. Highly porous nitrogen-doped carbon nanoparticles were successfully synthesized by using economically available resorcinol and formaldehyde as carbon precursors, with N-(2-aminoethyl)-3-aminopropyltrimethoxysilane (KH-792) as a soft template and silica sol as a hard template. The hollow nitrogen-doped carbon nanoparticles exhibit an evident microporous-mesoporous structure and have two different scales of mesopores with 9 nm and 12 nm, respectively. The effects of various synthetic parameters on the formation of hollow nitrogen-doped carbon nanoparticles were analyzed. The hollow nitrogen-doped carbon nanoparticles exhibited specific surface area of 1090 to 1716 m2/g and nitrogen content of 2.83 to 5.28%. At 273 K and 1 bar, the experimental results demonstrated the positive effects of the enriched pore structure and nitrogen do** on CO2 adsorption. The optimum adsorption capacity of activated NPCS (ANPCS) was 5.11 mmol/g with excellent CO2/N2 selectivity value of 20.44 at 273 K and 1 bar. The initial heat of adsorption value for ANPCS was 30.90 KJ/mol. Additionally, the hollow nitrogen-doped carbon nanoparticles retained 99.2% of the initial adsorbed amount after 5 cycles of adsorption. The excellent adsorption performance of the material can be ascribed not only to its extensive specific surface area and enriched nitrogen but also to its mesoporous and hollow structure, which facilitates rapid CO2 transport.

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Highlights

  • The combination of soft and hard templates was used to prepare hollow micro-mesoporous nitrogen-doped carbon nanoparticles.

  • N-(2-aminoethyl)-3-aminopropyltrimethoxysilane is used not only as structure-directing and pore-forming agent, but also nitrogen source.

  • The carbon nanoparticles have excellent CO2 adsorption due to their large specific surface area, high nitrogen content and mesoporous hollow structures.

  • The mesoporous and hollow structures leads to high CO2 transport rates in carbon nanoparticles.

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Acknowledgements

We acknowledge the financial support from the National Key R&D Program of China (2021YFB3501102).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Materials Science and Engineering, Bei**g University of Technology, 100 **leyuan, Chaoyang District, 100124, Bei**g, PR China

    **u Liu, Qun-Yan Li, Li Liu, Qi Wei, Su-** Cui & Zuo-Ren Nie

  2. The Key Laboratory of Advanced Functional Materials, Ministry of Education of China, 100 **leyuan, Chaoyang District, 100124, Bei**g, PR China

    **u Liu, Qun-Yan Li, Li Liu, Qi Wei, Su-** Cui & Zuo-Ren Nie

  3. Bei**g Key Laboratory of Green Built Environment and Energy Efficient Technology, Bei**g University of Technology, 100124, Bei**g, China

    **g-Chao **e

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Contributions

**u Liu: Writing-original draft, Investigation, Formal analysis, Data curation. **g-Chao **e: Writing-review & editing, Conceptualization. Qun-Yan Li: Writing-original draft, Supervision, Investigation, Funding acquisition, Formal analysis, Conceptualization. Li Liu: Writing-review & editing, Conceptualization, Data curation. Qi Wei: Writing-review & editing, Data curation. Su-** Cui: Writing-review & editing, Writing-original draft, Conceptualization. Zuo-Ren Nie:Writing-review & editing, Writing-original draft, Conceptualization.

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Correspondence to Qun-Yan Li.

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Liu, X., **e, JC., Li, QY. et al. Synthesis of hollow micro-mesoporous nitrogen-doped carbon nanoparticles for enhanced CO2 capture. J Sol-Gel Sci Technol (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10971-024-06432-7

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