Synthesis of High-Surface-Area Nitrogen-Doped Porous Carbon Microflowers and Their Efficient Carbon Dioxide Capture Performance

Sustainable carbon materials have received particular attention in CO₂ capture and storage owing to their abundant pore structures and controllable pore parameters. Here, we report high-surface-area hierarchically porous N-doped carbon microflowers, which were assembled from porous nanosheets by a three-step route: soft-template-assisted self-assembly, thermal decomposition, and KOH activation. The hydrazine hydrate used in our experiment serves as not only a nitrogen source, but also a structure-directing agent. The activation process was carried out under low (KOH/carbon=2), mild (KOH/carbon=4) and severe (KOH/carbon=6) activation conditions. The mild activated N-doped carbon microflowers (A-NCF-4) have a hierarchically porous structure, high specific surface area (2309 m²g^-1), desirable micropore size below 1 nm, and importantly large micropore volume (0.95 cm³g^-1). The remarkably high CO₂ adsorption capacities of 6.52 and 19.32 mmolg^-1 were achieved with this sample at 0°C (273 K) and two pressures, 1 bar and 20 bar, respectively. Furthermore, this sample also exhibits excellent stability during cyclic operations and good separation selectivity for CO₂ over N₂.