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Preparation optimization of carbon nanotube/carbon fiber incorporated carbon composite monoliths for high CO 2 adsorption capacity
Author(s) -
Jin Yonggang,
Hawkins Stephen C.,
Huynh Chi P.,
Su Shi
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
asia‐pacific journal of chemical engineering
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.348
H-Index - 35
eISSN - 1932-2143
pISSN - 1932-2135
DOI - 10.1002/apj.1921
Subject(s) - microporous material , adsorption , monolith , carbon nanotube , composite number , chemical engineering , materials science , flue gas , carbon fibers , fiber , volume (thermodynamics) , composite material , chemistry , organic chemistry , catalysis , engineering , physics , quantum mechanics
Carbon nanotube (CNT) /carbon fiber (CF) incorporated carbon composite monolith adsorbents have been recently reported exhibiting superior CO 2 adsorption properties for post‐combustion capture (PCC) of CO 2 . Here we conducted a detailed study on optimization of preparation of CNT/CF composites for high CO 2 adsorption capacities. A well‐developed narrow microporous (<1 nm) structure is the key to achieving the high CO 2 uptake of composite adsorbents at 298 K and under ambient and low CO 2 pressures. Using water as the solvent for composite mixing is more favorable for enhanced narrow microporosity and CO 2 adsorption capacity. The addition of CF lowers the CO 2 uptake of CNT composites and the CNT alone incorporation with a CNT/resin ratio of 1 wt% was found preferable. The burn‐off as an indicator of degree of CO 2 activation was optimized to be 20–30 wt% for the highest CO 2 uptake at ambient pressure, whereas the lower burn‐off at 10–20 wt% resulted in the largest amount of CO 2 adsorbed at 114 mmHg (corresponding to 15% of CO 2 ) relevant to the flue gas condition for PCC. The CO 2 adsorption capacity is significantly influenced by the narrow micropore size distribution and closely related to the pore volume of effective narrow micropores responsible for different adsorption pressures. The results obtained from this study are valuable to the development of other microporous carbons for CO 2 capture. © 2015 Curtin University of Technology and John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.