A series of carbon molecular sieves (CMSs) has been prepared, either as powders or monoliths, from petroleum pitch using potassium hydroxide as the activating agent. The CMS monoliths are prepared without the use of a binder based on the self-sintering ability of the mesophase pitch. Characterization results show that these CMSs combine a large apparent surface area (up to ca. 3100 m(2) g(-1)) together with a well-developed narrow microporosity (V(n) up to ca. 1.4 cm(3) g(-1)). The materials exhibit high adsorption capacities for CO(2) at 1 bar and 273 K (up to ca. 380 mg CO(2) g sorbent(-1)). To our knowledge, this is the best result obtained for CO(2) adsorption using carbon-based materials. Furthermore, although the CO(2) adsorption capacity for activated carbons has usually been considered lower than that of zeolites, the reported values exceed the total amount adsorbed on traditional 13X and 5A zeolites (ca. 230 mg and 180 mg CO(2) g sorbent(-1), respectively), under identical experimental conditions. Additionally, the narrow pore openings found in the CMS samples (ca. 0.4 nm) allows for the selective adsorption of CO(2) from molecules of similar dimensions (e.g., CH(4) and N(2)).

Although metal-organic framework (MOF) materials have been postulated as superior to any other sorbent for CO(2) adsorption at room temperature, here we prove that the appropriate selection of the raw material and the synthesis conditions allows the preparation of carbon molecular sieves (CMSs) with adsorption capacity, on a volumetric basis, highly exceeding those reported in the literature for MOFs. Furthermore, the excellent sorption properties of CMSs over the whole pressure range (up to 50 bar) are fully reversible after different adsorption/desorption cycles.

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