Binary doping of nitrogen and phosphorus into porous carbon: A novel di-functional material for enhancing CO2 capture and super-capacitance

Abstract Designing of hetero-atomic doped carbon-based systems through pyrolysis of abundant element organic precursors is a novel approach to construct rational porous carbon materials. Herein, a highly-cross-linked triazine polymer is employed to fabricate N, P co-doped porous carbon (A-TDP-12) with tunable active nitrogen in the carbon framework for simultaneous enhancement of CO2 capture capability and Supercapacitance (SC). The synthesized A-TDP-12 possesses a typical hierarchically porous framework (micro-pores and meso-pores) with a large surface area (1332 m2 g−1) and a rich content of N (7.89 atomic %) and P (0.74 atomic %). It delivers a CO2 adsorption capacity of 1.52 and 5.68 mmol g−1 at 1 and 5 bar, respectively, with almost no decay after successive 8 recycles. In 6 M KOH aqueous electrolyte, A-TDP-12 exhibits a superior specific capacitance of 172.7 F g−1 at a current density of 1 A g−1. Even at a high current density of 10 A g−1, 80% of its initial capacity still remains. This work not only offers a novel strategy for fabricating promising adsorbents and electrodes for CO2 uptake and SCs, but also provides new insights into design of porous carbon material for related applications.