Ordered mesoporous carbon membrane prepared from liquefied larch by a soft method

• A novel natural renewable resource larch sawdust as starting material.
• Carbon membranes with ordered mesoporous structures were obtained.
• The carbon membranes exhibited two-dimensional hexagonal structure with P6mm symmetry.
• Carbon membranes were investigated in separation of CO2 from N2/CO2 mixture.

Carbon membranes having ordered mesoporous structure were prepared via liquefaction, resinification, assembly and carbonization steps using natural renewable larch sawdust as starting material. The mesopores of the carbon membranes were formed by assembly of larch-based resin with F127 (PEO–PPO–PEO). The mesoporosity was controllable from disordered to ordered by varying the carbonization temperature. Mesoporous carbon membrane with an ordered two-dimensional hexagonal porous structure having P6mm symmetry was obtained at 700 °C. The unique ordered mesoporous structure resulted in the carbon membranes exhibiting high efficiency (permselectivity factor =1.97) for the separation of CO2 from a N2/CO2 mixture.

A novel natural renewable resource, larch sawdust, was liquefied and then used to synthesize ordered mesoporous carbon membranes for gas separation for the first time. The obtained carbon membranes exhibited two-dimensional hexagonal structure with P6mm symmetry. The porosity and surface area (367–469 m2/g) of carbon membranes mainly depend on carbonization temperature. The unique porosity enabled the carbon membranes to exhibit high efficiency for CO2 separation from N2.Figure optionsDownload as PowerPoint slide