A series of sustainable porous carbon materials were prepared from waste polyurethane foam and investigated for capture of CO2. The effects of preparation conditions, such as precarbonization, KOH to carbon precursor weight ratio, and activation temperature, on the porous structure and CO2 adsorption properties were studied for the purpose of controlling pore sizes and nitrogen content and developing high-performance materials for capture of CO2. The sample prepared at optimum conditions shows CO2 adsorption capacities of 6.67 and 4.33 mmol·g(-1) at 0 and 25 °C under 1 bar, respectively, which are comparable to those of the best reported porous carbons prepared from waste materials. The HCl treatment experiment reveals that about 80% of CO2 adsorption capacity arises from physical adsorption, while the other 20% is due to the chemical adsorption originated from the interaction of basic N groups and CO2 molecules. The relationship between CO2 uptake and pore size at different temperatures indicates that the micropores with pore size smaller than 0.86 and 0.70 nm play a dominant role in the CO2 adsorption at 0 and 25 °C, respectively. It was found that the obtained carbon materials exhibited high recyclability and high selectivity to adsorption of CO2 from the CO2 and N2 mixture.
Keywords: CO2 adsorption; polyurethane foam; porous carbon; ultramicropore; waste materials.