Converting poly(ethylene terephthalate) waste into N-doped porous carbon as CO2 adsorbent and solar steam generator

Abstract Sustainable conversion of waste plastics into valuable carbon materials for diverse applications provides a promising strategy to dispose the municipal and industrial waste plastics. However, it remains a challenge to precisely control the crosslinking reaction for transforming waste polyesters into N-doped porous carbon (NPC) with well-defined microstructures. Herein, we put forwards a strategy of stepwise crosslinking using melamine and ZnCl2/NaCl eutectic salts to convert poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET) into NPC at 550 oC. We prove that firstly melamine reacts with PET degradation products to form a crosslinking structure, and subsequently ZnCl2/NaCl promote the dehydration and decarboxylation of the crosslinking structure to generate a more thermally stable crosslinking structure. The coordination of two tandem crosslinking reactions is critical to control the microstructure of NPC. Without activations, NPC shows large specific surface area of 1173 m2 g-1, abundant N dopants, and rich oxygen-containing groups. These combined features endure NPC with excellent performance in CO2 capture and solar steam generation, e.g., high CO2 adsorption capacity of 6.47 mmol g-1 and evaporation rate of 1.62 kg m-2 h-1. More importantly, NPC is compared to or prevails over previous carbon-based CO2 adsorbents or photothermal materials. This work will advance the research on “green” reutilization of low-cost polyester wastes to prepare sustainable carbon for solar energy conversion, environmental protection, etc.