Porous nitrogen-doped carbon monoliths derived from biopolymer-structured liquid precursors

- Porous nitrogen-doped carbon monoliths are derived from an eutectic liquid.
- The structuring/gelation agent is biopolymer chitosan which circumvents conventional formaldehyde resins.
- The material reveals accessible micro and mesopores as demonstrated by CO2 and dye sorption experiments.

Nitrogen-doped carbon monoliths can be prepared from liquid, deep eutectic mixtures of urea and hexaketocyclohexane octahydrate, which are structured by chitosan as a natural in-situ scaffold and support. The as-formed polymer monolith can then be transformed into the respective nitrogen-doped carbon monolith with a high surface area, high mesoporosity and high nitrogen-content. The surface functionality as well as the access to the internal pore structure were demonstrated by carbon dioxide and dye sorption experiments. The applied synthetic procedure is simple, does not require additional activation steps and uses cheap and naturally abundant compounds avoiding typical and hazardous formaldehyde resins. Eventually, this offers a safe and sustainable alternative to current carbon monolith synthesis.

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