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 H₂ and N₂ permeances of 4.2 × 10⁻⁶ and 0.74 × 10⁻⁶ mol m⁻² s⁻¹ Pa⁻¹, and moderate H₂/CO₂ and N₂/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.