Facile fabrication of nitrogen doped carbon from filter paper for CO2 adsorption

Abstract The preparation and application of heteroatom doped carbons have attracted lots of attention in the past years. In the current work, a facile synthesis of nitrogen doped carbon with filter paper as the carbon source and urea as the nitrogen source was presented. Filter paper was first impregnated with urea solution, and was then carbonized and activated. The carbons’ physical and chemical properties were studied. For the application in CO2 adsorption, impacts from porous characteristics and nitrogen doping were discussed and differentiated. The results suggested that nitrogen doping was beneficial to the improvement of CO2 uptake, but suitable porous properties were the most important factors. Nitrogen doping showed more significant effects on enhancing the adsorption heat and selectivity. The research of carbonaceous CO2 adsorbent should focus on nitrogen doped carbons with high porosity.