Yeast‐Based Microporous Carbon Materials for Carbon Dioxide Capture

Abstract

A hierarchical microporous carbon material with a Brunauer–Emmett–Teller surface area of 1348 m² g⁻¹ and a pore volume of 0.67 cm³ g⁻¹ was prepared from yeast through chemical activation with potassium hydroxide. This type of material contains large numbers of nitrogen‐containing groups (nitrogen content >5.3 wt %), and, consequently, basic sites. As a result, this material shows a faster adsorption rate and a higher adsorption capacity of CO₂ than the material obtained by directly carbonizing yeast under the same conditions. The difference is more pronounced in the presence of N₂ or H₂O, showing that chemical activation of discarded yeast with potassium hydroxide could afford high‐performance microporous carbon materials for the capture of CO₂.