Design of Porous Carbon Adsorbents from Ethylene Glycol for Selective CO2 Adsorption

Abstract The production of affordable advanced porous materials is necessary for applications involving the capture of CO 2 . This study aimed to investigate the use of inexpensive liquid precursors in the production of CO 2 sorbents. Porous precursors were produced through solvothermal processing of ethylene glycol via dehydration using sulfuric acid. Various pyrolysis and activation techniques were utilized on a carbon precursor to examine how different heat treatment methods affect surface chemical properties and the behavior of static CO 2 adsorption at temperatures of 273 K, 298 K, and 313 K. Out of the studied carbons, the urea‐treated pyrolyzed sample exhibited a CO 2 uptake capacity of 0.93 mmol g −1 at a pressure of 0.15 bar and a temperature of 298 K. This carbon exhibited a remarkable CO 2 /N 2 selectivity of 46, mainly due to its microporosity and a nitrogen content of 8.3 atomic percent. Moreover, the investigation of adsorption and chemical properties unveiled that nonoxidized sulfur exhibits favorable effects on CO 2 adsorption, particularly at the temperature of 298 K. This study provides evidence that liquid precursors can be effectively employed to generate porous doped functional carbons or precursors using solvothermal conditions.