Enhancing graphitization with desirable porosity for CO2 adsorption through a one-step strategy and a novel stepwise pyrolysis method from Terminalia boivinii tul tree dead leaves

The rising level of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere has led to concerns about climate change, making carbon dioxide (CO2) adsorption an increasingly important issue. Activated carbon-based materials with high surface area and porous structure have shown great potential for capturing CO2 from gas mixtures. In this study, we investigated the use of Terminalia boivinii tul tree dead leaves to synthesize activated carbon using a one-step strategy with KMnO4 and a novel stepwise pyrolysis strategy. We examined the effects of the stepwise pyroly-sis strategy on carbon structure and CO2 adsorption and used X-ray diffraction (XRD) to analyze the degree of crystallinity and structural orientation of the synthesized activated carbon samples. The results of the XRD analysis showed that the HAC_850S sample exhibited higher intensity in the (002) plane than the HAC_850 sample, indicating a higher degree of crystallinity and suggesting that the sample treated with the step-wise pyrolysis strategy exhibited a more ordered carbon structure. This finding suggests that the use of waste biomass as feedstock to produce activated carbon using one-step KMnO4-assisted synthesis and step-wise py-rolysis can lead to the production of high-quality graphitized materials with desirable porosity and surface area suitable for CO2 adsorption. The study's results revealed that the sample treated by the HAC_850S process exhibited the highest CO2 adsorption capacity of approximately 41 mg/g, while the HAC_850 and PP_350 py-rolysis samples had adsorption capacities of around 36 mg/g and 30 mg/g, respectively. The findings suggest that the development of cost-effective and scalable methods to produce activated carbon for CO2 capture is possible, and the study's results contribute to the development of new technology and solutions capable of addressing the challenges associated with climate change.