Nitrogen-containing high surface area carbon cryogel from co-condensed phenol-urea-formaldehyde resin for CO2 capture

A cost-effective nitrogen-doped super high surface area carbon cryogel has been successfully synthesized from phenol-urea-formaldehyde (PUF) resin. Pore structure and chemical characteristics were investigated using scanning electron microscopy, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, element analysis, X-ray photoelectron spectrometry, mercury porosimetry and N-2 adsorption-desorption. It was found that the organic cryogel with mesopores and macropores from PUF resin having a N content of 9.03wt%, which is an ideal precursor for preparing N-doped carbon cryogels. The carbon cryogel obtained having a high apparent surface area of up to 1710m(2)/g, large micropore volumes up to 0.64cm(3)/g, a small average micropore width of 1.04nm and a moderate nitrogen content of 2.08wt%. The lab-made carbon cryogel showed good CO2/N-2 sorption selectivity, 15.8:1 at 273K and 16.4:1 at 298K. The CO2 capture capacities as high as 5.5mmol/g at 273K and 4.5mmol/g at 298K up to 1bar were obtained, which were among the highest compared to other commercial carbon materials.