Development of porous carbon nanofibers from electrospun polyvinylidene fluoride for CO 2 capture

Highly porous carbon nanofibers (CNFs) are successfully prepared for CO2 capture from the carbonization of electrospun polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF). In the CNF preparation, different temperatures in the range 300–1000 °C are applied for carbonization, and the effect of temperature is investigated. Well-developed porosities and enhanced CO2 adsorption uptakes are achieved by applying a large degree of carbonization at temperatures of 400 °C or above. In the carbonization at high temperatures, narrow micropores (<0.7 nm) are predominantly developed in the PVDF-based CNFs, contributing to an increase of specific surface area and pore volume up to 1065 m2 g−1 and 0.61 cm3 g−1, respectively. The highest CO2 adsorption uptake of 3.1 mol kg−1 is measured at 30 °C and ∼1 atm for PVDF-based CNF carbonized at 1000 °C. PVDF-based CNFs also display excellent recyclability and rapid adsorption–desorption kinetics, which make PVDF-based CNFs promising adsorbents for CO2 capture.