Facile synthesis of mesoporous melamine-formaldehyde spheres for carbon dioxide capture

摘要

Greenhouse effect and excessive carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions have caused widespread public concern in recent years. Tremendous efforts have been made towards CO2 capture promoting the development of numerous sorbents. In this study, mesoporous melamine-formaldehyde spheres (MMFSs) with high surface area (298 m(2) g(-1)), uniform pore sizes (3.0 nm) and high nitrogen content (similar to 45%) have been successfully synthesized using Pluronic F127 and sodium dodecyl sulfonate (SDS) as the templates, glycol as the organic co-solvent, and melamine (M) and paraformaldehyde (PFA) as the precursors, respectively. These MMFSs are highly effective in capturing CO2, with the maximum adsorption capacity of 48.0 mg g(-1) at 273 K for CO2. Moreover, the CO2/N-2 selectivity at 298 K reaches 24.3, which is attributed to the high N content allowing for high binding affinity with CO2 and the well-defined mesopores (3.0 nm). This approach suggests a new direction in designing CO2 sorbents with excellent selectivity.