Nitrogen
and sulfur codoped and completely renewable carbons were
synthesized from two types of algae,
Spirulina Platensis
and
Chlorella Vulgaris,
without any
additional nitrogen fixation reaction. The type of activation agents,
char-forming temperature, activation agent-to-char ratio, and activation
temperature were all varied to optimize the reaction conditions for
this synthesis. The maximum Brunauer–Emmett–Teller surface
area and total pore volumes of the carbons were 2685 m
2
/g and 1.4 cm
3
/g, respectively. The nitrogen and sulfur
contents of the carbons were in the range of 0.9–5.69 at. %
and 0.05–0.2 at. %, respectively. The key nitrogen functionalities
were pyridinic, amino, and pyridonic/pyrrolic groups, whereas the
key sulfur functionalities were S–C, O–S–C, and
SO
x
groups. CO
2
adsorption
isotherms were measured at 273, 298, and 313 K, and the ideal adsorbed
solution theory was employed to calculate the selectivity of adsorption
of CO
2
over N
2
and simulate binary adsorption
isotherms. The adsorption results demonstrated that the CO
2
adsorption amount and the heat of CO
2
adsorption were
higher for carbons with higher nitrogen content, confirming the influence
of nitrogen functionality in CO
2
adsorption. The overall
results suggested that these algae-derived renewable carbons can serve
as potential adsorbents for CO
2
separation from N
2
.