Nitrogen-decorated, porous carbons derived from waste cow manure as efficient catalysts for the selective capture and conversion of CO.

The catalytic conversion of CO is a promising solution to the greenhouse effect and simultaneously recycles the carbon sources to produce high value-added chemicals. Herein, we demonstrated a class of nanoporous carbons, which were synthesized by the direct carbonization of bio-waste cow manure, followed by activation with KOH and NaNH. Various characterizations indicate that the resultant nanoporous carbons have abundant nanopores and nitrogen sites. As a result, their performances for the capture and catalytic conversion of CO were investigated. The synthesized nanoporous carbons exhibited superior properties for the selective capture and catalytic cycloaddition of CO to propylene oxide as compared to various solid materials.