Issue 100, 2016, Issue in Progress

Novel nanostructured carbons derived from epoxy resin and their adsorption characteristics for CO2 capture

Abstract

In this work, a nanocasting technique has been used to synthesize oxygen enriched carbon adsorbents with epoxy resin as the precursor and mesoporous zeolite as a template. Carbonization and physical activation with CO2 was carried out to prepare different carbon adsorbents. Characterization of the synthesized adsorbents was done using N2 sorption, XRD, SEM, TEM, TGA, FTIR spectroscopy, CHN analysis, and XPS. The surface area and pore volume of the synthesized adsorbent prepared at 600 °C were found to be a maximum of 686.37 m2 g−1 and 0.60 cm3 g−1, respectively, but showed a lower adsorption capacity due to lesser oxygen content as compared to the sample prepared at 700 °C. The sample prepared at 700 °C exhibited the highest CO2 uptake, approximately 0.65 mmol g−1, at 30 °C due to the high oxygen content, which was estimated to be about 53.98% determined using CHN analysis and also due to high surface basicity confirmed by XPS. The sample prepared by direct carbonization of the polymeric precursor shows a completely non-porous and highly acidic material having the least adsorption capacity. It was found that an increase in concentration of CO2 increases adsorption capacity and an increase in adsorption temperature decreases adsorption capacity. CO2 adsorption kinetics were performed by using three kinetic models and from the correlation coefficient, adsorption kinetics were found to obey fractional order with error% within the range of 4.24%. For checking the regenerability, four adsorption–desorption cycles were examined. It was found that the adsorbents exhibit easy regenerability, stable adsorption capacity and good selectivity for CO2–N2 separation. The experimental data are well fitted with the Freundlich isotherm, showing a heterogeneous adsorbent surface. The isosteric heat Qst of CO2 is 9.09 kJ mol−1, which indicates the presence of the physisorption process. The negative value of Gibbs free energy suggests the spontaneous nature of the process. The values of ΔH° and ΔS° were found to be −2.562 kJ mol−1 and 0.033 kJ mol−1 K−1, respectively. The negative value of ΔH° suggests the exothermic nature of the adsorption process.

Graphical abstract: Novel nanostructured carbons derived from epoxy resin and their adsorption characteristics for CO2 capture

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
18 Jul 2016
Accepted
29 Sep 2016
First published
13 Oct 2016

RSC Adv., 2016,6, 97728-97738

Novel nanostructured carbons derived from epoxy resin and their adsorption characteristics for CO2 capture

D. Tiwari, C. Goel, H. Bhunia and P. K. Bajpai, RSC Adv., 2016, 6, 97728 DOI: 10.1039/C6RA18291G

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