Influence of the Acidic and Basic Sites on the CO2 Adsorption Capacity ofDoped Ordered Mesoporous Carbons

摘要

The worldwide increasing energy demand gives rise to a constant increase in the anthropogenic emissions of CO2, which is one of the main causes for climatic change. Therefore, it is necessary to develop and to implement method for reducing the emission of this gas. Nowadays, different technological options are being studied, such as the use of energy sources alternative to fossil fuels, the reduction of the energy consumption, the increase of the efficiency of energy conversion or the development of systems of CO2 capture and storage. Within this latest technology, the use of adsorbents for CO2 capture is gaining increasing interest. It has been demonstrated that high micropore volumes and narrow micropore size distributions are needed to increase the CO2 adsorption capacities of carbon materials under post-combustion conditions (i.e. temperature around 25 °C and atmospheric pressure). The beneficial effect of the incorporation of basic functionalities on the surface of the carbon, especially nitrogen groups, was also demonstrated. This positive effect is due to the increase of the interactions between the basic nitrogen groups and CO2, but no clear determination of the type of nitrogen functional groups has been made. Thus, anassessment of the influence of different functional groups on CO2 adsorption is necessary in order to develop materials with optimized properties for this application.