Facile synthesis of a nitrogen-doped carbon membrane for CO2 capture

Abstract A controllable one-pot method to synthesize a nitrogen-doped carbon membrane by pyrolysis of urea/novalac resin composite on a green novalac resin support is reported. The microporosity was increased by decomposition of the urea during pyrolysis without post-treatment. Further, the presence of nitrogen in the resulting carbon membrane significantly increased the CO 2 adsorption capacity of carbon membrane, which led to a reduction in CO 2 permeance. The carbon membrane showed high H 2 and N 2 permeances of 4.2 × 10 −6 and 0.74 × 10 −6  mol m −2  s −1  Pa −1 , and moderate H 2 /CO 2 and N 2 /CO 2 ideal selectivities of 9.2 and 1.6, respectively. This carbon membrane may have potential applications for efficient CO 2 capture from industrial mixtures at high temperatures.