Solar-driven high-performance biomass porous carbon for efficient CO₂ capture

Temperature swing adsorption (TSA) based on solid adsorbents is an efficient CO₂ capture technology, but the temperature swing process is energy-intensive. Utilizing solar energy to regenerate adsorbents during the CO₂ swing adsorption process can decrease energy consumption. This work reports a novel high-performance biomass porous carbon for efficient CO₂ capture and separation in the solar-driven TSA process. Inspired by the distinctive internal expansion structure of succulents, the adsorbent is synthesized using succulents as precursors with a large specific surface area (1715 m²/g) and high solar absorbance (90.38 %), resulting in high CO₂ adsorption capacity and solar thermal conversion capacity. It achieves a remarkable working capacity of 30.94 mg/g at a low desorption temperature (60 °C) in the solar-driven TSA process with a light intensity of 600 W/m², 80.7 % higher than commercial activation carbon. The proposed biomass porous carbon derived from succulent plants has substantial potential for application in the solar-driven TSA process.