Nitrogen-rich hierarchically porous polyaniline-based adsorbents for carbon dioxide (CO2) capture.

Graphical abstract Highlights • Hierarchically porous materials were synthesized using an easy and new concept. • The materials were prepared from cheap precursors and applied in CO 2 capture. • The pore size distribution was easily tuned by changing the size of nanoparticles. • The high CO 2 sorption capacity is among the highest reported for carbon materials. • The approach provides a strategy serving as a guide to the design of new CO 2 capture sorbents. Abstract The development of new materials and technologies for CO 2 capture has attracted a lot of interest due to the growing concerns about global warming and climate change. Herein, we prepared hierarchically porous materials from cheap precursors – polyaniline and polystyrene nanoparticles (PS NPs) using an easy and new concept based on the removal of the PS NPs during a pre-carbonization step followed by chemical activation. The pore size distribution was easily tuned by varying the size of the sacrificial PS NPs and the intensity of chemical treatment. We obtained an outstanding CO 2 capture capacity of our optimum material (9.14 mmol g−1 at 273.15 K and 1 bar). The findings suggest that these materials are promising CO 2 sorbents and the approach provides a strategy to design new high-capacity polymer-based carbons for CO 2 capture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]