Efficient CO 2 Capture by Nitrogen-Doped Biocarbons Derived from Rotten Strawberries Limin Yue, † Linli Rao, † Liwei Wang, † Linlin Wang, ‡ Jiayi Wu, † Xin Hu,* ,† Herbert DaCosta, § Jie Yang, † and Maohong Fan ∥ † College of Chemistry and Life Sciences, Zhejiang Normal University, Jinhua 321004, PR China ‡ College of Engineering, Zhejiang Normal University, Jinhua 321004, PR China § Math, Science, and Engineering Division, Illinois Central College, 1 College Drive, East Peoria, Illinois 61635, United States ∥ Department of Chemical and Petroleum Engineering, University of Wyoming, Laramie, Wyoming 82071, United States * S Supporting Information ABSTRACT: In this study, rotten strawberries were used as carbon precursor to prepare nitrogen-doped porous biocarbons for CO 2 capture. The sorbents were synthesized by hydrothermal treatment of rotten strawberries, followed by KOH activation. The nitrogen in the resulting sorbents is inherited from the rotten strawberry precursor. This series of samples demonstrates high CO 2 uptake at 1 bar, up to 4.49 mmol g −1 at 25 °C and 6.35 mmol g −1 at 0 °C. In addition to narrow micropore volume and nitrogen content, the pore size of narrow micropores also plays a key role in determining the CO 2 capture capacity under ambient conditions. Furthermore, these sorbents possess stable reusability, moderate heat of CO 2 adsorption, quick CO 2 adsorption kinetics, reasonable CO 2 /N 2 selectivity, and high dynamic CO 2 capture capacity under simulated flue gas conditions. All these merits along with the zero-cost and wide availability of rotten strawberry precursor make this type of sorbent highly promising in CO 2 capture from combustion flue gas. 1. INTRODUCTION CO 2 is one of the most dominant greenhouse gases, and its emission has a key responsibility in global warming. 1 To mitigate CO 2 emission, different techniques have been extensively researched including amine scrubbing, 2 membrane separation, 3 and ionic liquid absorption, 4 to name a few. Among the various CO 2 capture technologies, adsorption via solid adsorbents shows great promise due to its merits of low capital investment, simple operation, low energy consumption, and avoidance of equipment corrosion. 5−10 A key factor for the success of this technique is to find sorbents with superior CO 2 adsorption properties, such as high CO 2 uptake and CO 2 /N 2 selectivity, rapid CO 2 adsorption kinetics, medium heat of adsorption, and outstanding chemical and mechanical stability. Among various solid porous sorbents such as carbons, 11−17 silica, 18,19 porous metal oxide, 20 zeolites, 21 metal organic frameworks (MOFs), 22,23 and porous polymers, 24,25 porous carbonaceous sorbents have revealed great promise in CO 2 capture. The advantages of porous carbons include easy synthesis; low production cost; large accessible surface area; easy control of porosity; favorable surface chemistry; low chemical reactivity; high chemical, thermal, and mechanical stability; and high resistance to moisture. 11,14,17 An attractive feature for porous carbons is that they can be synthesized from readily available and low-cost precursors, such as coal, 26−28 petroleum coke, 29−31 carbon-rich polymer, 32,33 wood, 34 and various biomass sources. 35−42 In light of their wide availability, low cost, and renewability, biomass-derived porous carbons have obtained significant attention and showed great potential for CO 2 capture under ambient conditions. For example, Mokaya and co-workers synthesized a series of Jujun grass and Camellia japonica-derived porous carbons. 39 The maximum CO 2 uptake at 25 °C and 1 bar was up to 5.0 mmol/g for these carbonaceous sorbents. In another work, they reported even higher CO 2 adsorption capacity under the same testing conditions, i.e., 5.8 mmol/g, for porous carbons prepared from sawdust and lignin. 43 Sevilla et al. also prepared porous carbon using sawdust as the precursor, and the maximum CO 2 uptake was 4.8 mmol/g under 25 °C and 1 bar. 44 Deng et al. developed pine nut shell-derived porous carbons, with the maximum CO 2 uptake of 5.0 mmol/g at 25 °C and 1 bar. 45 As one of the most commonly consumed fruits, strawberry is rich in nutritional value and contains a variety of vitamins that are beneficial to human health. Strawberries also have plentiful output; the strawberry production of China in market year Received: July 2, 2017 Revised: September 4, 2017 Accepted: November 8, 2017 Published: November 8, 2017 Article pubs.acs.org/IECR © 2017 American Chemical Society 14115 DOI: 10.1021/acs.iecr.7b02692 Ind. Eng. Chem. Res. 2017, 56, 14115−14122 Cite This: Ind. Eng. Chem. Res. 2017, 56, 14115-14122 Downloaded via UNIV OF WYOMING on August 9, 2019 at 20:32:54 (UTC). See https://pubs.acs.org/sharingguidelines for options on how to legitimately share published articles.