Facile synthesis of a nitrogen-doped carbon membrane for CO2 capture

A controllable one-pot method to synthesize a nitrogen-doped carbon membrane by pyrolysis of urea/ novalac resin composite on a green novalac resin support is reported. The microporosity was increased by decomposition of the urea during pyrolysis without post-treatment. Further, the presence of nitrogen in the resulting carbon membrane significantly increased the CO2 adsorption capacity of carbon membrane, which led to a reduction in CO2 permeance. The carbon membrane showed high H-2 and N-2 permeances of 4.2 x 10 (6) and 0.74 x 10 (6) mol m (2) s (1) Pa (1), and moderate H-2/CO2 and N-2/CO2 ideal selectivities of 9.2 and 1.6, respectively. This carbon membrane may have potential applications for efficient CO2 capture from industrial mixtures at high temperatures. (c) 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.