Summary: | In this work, nitrogen-doped bamboo-based activated carbon (NBAC) was in situ synthesized from simply blending bamboo charcoal (BC) with sodamide (SA, NaNH<sub>2</sub>) powders and heating with a protection of nitrogen flow at a medium temperature. The elemental analysis and X-ray photoelectron spectra of as-synthesized NBAC showed quite a high nitrogen level of the simultaneously activated and doped samples; an abundant pore structure had also been determined from the NBACs which has a narrow size distribution of micropores (<2 nm) and favorable specific surface area that presented superb adsorption performance. The fcarbon dioxide (CO<sub>2</sub>) adsorption of the NBACs was measured at 0 °C and 25 °C at a pressure of 1 bar, whose capture capacities reached 3.68–4.95 mmol/g and 2.49–3.52 mmol/g, respectively, and the maximum adsorption could be observed for NBACs fabricated with an SA/BC ratio of 3:1 and activated at 500 °C. Further, adsorption selectivity of CO<sub>2</sub> over N<sub>2</sub> was deduced with the ideal adsorbed solution theory ((IAST), the selectivity was finally calculated which ranged from 15 to 17 for the NBACs fabricated at 500 °C). The initial isosteric heat of adsorption (Qst) of NBACs was also determined at 30–40 kJ/mol, which suggested that CO<sub>2</sub> adsorption was a physical process. The results of ten-cycle adsorption-desorption experimentally confirmed the regenerated NBACs of a steady CO<sub>2</sub> adsorption performance, that is, the as-synthesized versatile NBAC with superb reproducibility makes it a perspective candidate in CO<sub>2</sub> capture and separation application.
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