Shuhui Li

Controllable synthesis of nitrogen-doped hollow carbon nanospheres with dopamine as precursor for CO2 capture

Nitrogen-doped hollow carbon nanospheres (N-HCSs) have been synthesized by self-polymerization of dopamine on silica spheres using the modified Stober method. The fabrication process uses dopamine as carbon and nitrogen source and tetraethyl orthosilicate as a structure-assisting agent. The particle sizes and shell thicknesses of the N-HCSs can be easily tuned in the range of 270–700 nm and 30–55 nm, respectively, by simply modifying the ethanol/water volume ratios. The surface areas of N-HCSs are in the range of 345–463 m2 g−1, and the total pore volumes are in the range of 0.34–0.52 cm3 g−1. The obtained N-HCSs have uniform mesoporous size of ∼4.0 nm, and high nitrogen loading content of 7.2 at%. Besides, the N-HCSs exhibit a considerable performance for CO2 capture with a capacity of 3.09 mmol g−1 at 25 °C and 1.0 bar and a good cycling stability.

Biomass derived 5-hydroxymethylfurfural as carbon precursor to form hollow carbon nanospheres for CO2 capture

ABSTRACT We prepare the hollow carbon nanospheres (HCNs) by employing SiO2 nanospheres as hard template, 5-Hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF) as carbon precursor under hydrothermal conditions. The HCNs show uniform spherical morphology copied from SiO2 nanospheres and exhibit large cavity, thin shell structure with the surface area of 790 m2 g−1 and pore volume of 2.23 cm3 g−1. Owing to their large internal voids and high surface area, the HCNs exhibit a promising prospect for CO2 capture with the capacity of 3.04 mmol g−1 at 1.0 bar and 298 K, as well as good recyclability for CO2 after ten adsorption-desorption cycles.