Salt Templating with Pore Padding: Hierarchical Pore Tailoring towards Functionalised Porous Carbons

We propose a new synthetic route towards nanoporous functional carbon materials based on salt templating with pore-padding approach (STPP). STPP relies on the use of a pore-padding agent that undergoes an initial polymerisation/ condensation process prior to the formation of a solid carbon framework. The pore-padding agent allows tailoring hierarchically the pore-size distribution and controlling the amount of heteroatom (nitrogen in this case) functionalities as well as the type of nitrogen (graphitic, pyridinic, oxides of nitrogen) incorporated within the carbon framework in a single-step-process. Our newly developed STPP method offers a unique pathway and new design principle to create simultaneously high surface area, microporosity, functionality and pore hierarchy. The functional carbon materials produced by STPP showed a remarkable CO₂ /N₂ selectivity. At 273 K, a carbon with only micropores offered an exceptionally high CO₂ adsorption capacity whereas a carbon with only mesopores showed promising CO₂ -philicity with high CO₂ /N₂ selectivity in the range of 46-60 %, making them excellent candidates for CO₂ capture from flue gas or for CO₂ storage.