CO2 adsorption studies on spherical carbon derived from resorcinol-formaldehyde resin and sugars

A highly porous spherical carbon material produced from resorcinol-formaldehyde resin and sugars was applied as an efficient CO2 sorbent. The effect of the modification with different sugars on the physicochemical properties of the obtained materials was investigated. As a result, very efficient CO2 adsorbents have been obtained. Produced materials expressed high CO2 uptake values, reaching 6.79 mmol/g at 0 oC and 1 atm for the sample modified with xylitol. In addition, the selectivity of the sugar modified samples towards CO2 has been significantly improved in comparison to the reference resorcinol-formaldehyde resin derived sample. The incorporation of sugars resulted in changes in the crystallographic structure of the samples leading to obtaining more disordered carbon materials.