A facile soft-template synthesis of nitrogen doped mesoporous carbons for hydrogen sulfide removal

A series of nitrogen-doped mesoporous carbons (NMCs) were prepared using Pluronic F127 as a structure directing agent, phloroglucinol and formaldehyde as carbon precursor and dicyandiamide as nitrogen source. The obtained nitrogen-doped mesoporous carbons possess high nitrogen content of 6.37-19.28 wt%. Due to the feature of high nitrogen contents, NMCs show superior H2S adsorption performance with breakthrough sulfur capacity of 0.48 mmol g(-1) at room temperature and ambient pressure. It is revealed that in addition to the nitrogen content, nitrogen configuration and porosity of the carbon materials also influence significantly their sulfur capacity. This work offers a facile strategy for the synthesis of porous carbon materials with excellent performance in the adsorptive removal of H2S.