Construction of hierarchically porous 3D graphene-like carbon material by B, N co-doping for enhanced CO2 capture

Abstract A unique 3D B, N co-doped carbon nanomaterial (B/N-CNs) is fabricated by simply carbonizing a mixture of orthoboric acid, soy bean oil and melamine. The obtained B/N-CNs are composed of B, N co-doped graphene-like carbon nanosheets (BCN) and hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN) domains with hierarchically porous structure, including erythrocyte-shaped macropores, narrowed mesopores and numerous micropores. The B/N-CNs sample shows enhanced CO2 selective capture ability compared with the one without B doping (N-CNs). The higher CO2 uptake and CO2/N2 capture selectivity of B/N-CNs can be contributed to abundant ultramicropores within hierarchically porous structure and the suitable electrostatic interaction between CO2 and adsorption sites both on the BCN nanosheets and h-BN domains.