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• Facile preparation of N -doped AC with high N -content was reported. • N -doped AC and AC were compared in terms of physical properties, CO 2 adsorption. • Correlations between CO 2 uptake and specific pore size section, N -content was analyzed. • N -doped AC exhibited better CO 2 adsorption capacity and selectivity than AC. Activated carbons (AC) were prepared by carbonization and KOH activation using rice husk as feedstock. The effects of impregnation ratios and activation temperatures on the properties of AC were investigated. Under optimum conditions, BET surface area, total pore volume and micropore volume of AC are as high as 1495.52 m2/g, 0.786 cm3/g and 0.447 cm3/g, respectively. Surface modification with chitosan as nitrogen source was performed simultaneously during KOH activation process. XPS and FT-IR analyses show that N -species was successfully incorporate into AC. Compared with AC-5 (general AC), CAC-5 (modified AC) exhibits better CO 2 adsorption performance, reaching 5.83 mmol/g at 273 K and 1 bar, which can be attributed to the formation of the CO 2 -philic active sites on AC surface by N -species. The linear correlations between CO 2 uptake, micropore volume within specific size section and N -content was investigated. The isosteric heat of CO 2 adsorption for CAC-5 (average 30.21 kJ/mol) is much higher than that of AC-5 (average 14.48 kJ/mol). The adsorption behavior of CAC-5 can be well described by Freundlich model. The high IAST selectivity factor for N -doped ACs indicates their excellent adsorption selectivity for CO 2 over N 2. Both physisorption and chemisorption are present in CO 2 adsorption process of N -doped ACs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]