The effect of surfactants on carbon xerogel structure and CO2 capture

Porous carbon xerogels were successfully fabricated by carbonization of resorcinol-formaldehyde-phloroglucinol gels in the presence of surfactants. Among the obtained samples, the one using hexamethylenetetramine (HTM) exhibited the highest CO2 adsorption capacity (2.89 mmol g−1) and adsorption selectivity as a result of the high microporosity (88.0%). Therefore, HTM-CA was identified as a promising material for CO2 adsorption.232