Waste foam to upcycled sponge-like porous carbon composites for efficient CO2 capture and conversion

Waste-derived porous carbon shows great potential for application in CO 2 capture and conversion. In this work, we report a modified method for upcycling waste foam from vehicular sound insulation materials into porous carbon fiber composites that can be used for efficient CO 2 capture and conversion under 1 bar conditions. The sponge-like porous carbon composites have high nitrogen content, porosity, and mechanical strength, and can selectively adsorb CO 2 from flue gas. The adsorbed CO 2 can be desorbed via heating or vacuum and then converted into useful products such as cyclic carbonates. Besides, sponge-like porous carbon composites show good stability and recyclability, and can be easily scaled up in industrial applications. It is important to note that high-temperature carbonization causes the loss of nitrogen in unmodified porous carbon materials, which makes physical adsorption the dominant type of CO 2 adsorption. In contrast, composite materials that have undergone in-situ polymerization primarily adsorb and activate CO 2 through chemical action. The results of BET, XPS, TEM, FT-IR, and DFT studies suggest that the modified sponge-like porous carbon composites with more active sites are beneficial for CO 2 capture and conversion. Therefore, this study provides a green and sustainable way to utilize waste foam from end-of-life vehicles and the value-increment of CO 2 .