In Situ Dry Chemical Synthesis of Nitrogen-Doped Activated Carbon from Bamboo Charcoal for Carbon Dioxide Adsorption

In this work, nitrogen-doped bamboo-based activated carbon (NBAC) was in situ synthesized from simply blending bamboo charcoal (BC) with sodamide (SA, NaNH₂) powders and heating with a protection of nitrogen flow at a medium temperature. The elemental analysis and X-ray photoelectron spectra of as-synthesized NBAC showed quite a high nitrogen level of the simultaneously activated and doped samples; an abundant pore structure had also been determined from the NBACs which has a narrow size distribution of micropores (<2 nm) and favorable specific surface area that presented superb adsorption performance. The fcarbon dioxide (CO₂) adsorption of the NBACs was measured at 0 °C and 25 °C at a pressure of 1 bar, whose capture capacities reached 3.68–4.95 mmol/g and 2.49–3.52 mmol/g, respectively, and the maximum adsorption could be observed for NBACs fabricated with an SA/BC ratio of 3:1 and activated at 500 °C. Further, adsorption selectivity of CO₂ over N₂ was deduced with the ideal adsorbed solution theory ((IAST), the selectivity was finally calculated which ranged from 15 to 17 for the NBACs fabricated at 500 °C). The initial isosteric heat of adsorption (Qst) of NBACs was also determined at 30–40 kJ/mol, which suggested that CO₂ adsorption was a physical process. The results of ten-cycle adsorption-desorption experimentally confirmed the regenerated NBACs of a steady CO₂ adsorption performance, that is, the as-synthesized versatile NBAC with superb reproducibility makes it a perspective candidate in CO₂ capture and separation application.