Nitrogen-doping microporous adsorbents prepared from palm kernel with excellent CO2 capture property

In post-combustion CO₂ capture, waste biomass is a favourable precursor to prepare porous carbons due to its low cost, renewability, and unique microstructures. This study presents a facile method for preparing N-doping porous carbons. Palm kernel shell was selected as carbon precursor, and its inherent silica species acted as a natural template to form hierarchical pores. The obtained samples exhibit predominant characteristics with highly developed micropores and a high N content providing an important contribution to CO₂ adsorption capacity, which can reach up to 5.29 and 2.30 mmol/g under 100 kPa at 25 and 60 °C, respectively. Moreover, the resultant porous carbons also exhibit excellent cycling stability after 20 cycles. Furthermore, the activation mechanism was investigated by the quantitative thermogravimetry-mass spectrometry (TG-MS) method.