Preparation and Characterization of Nitrogen-Containing Cellular Activated Carbon for CO₂ and H₂ Adsorption

Abstract

New monolithic nitrogen-containing microporous cellular activated carbon was successfully prepared from phenol-urea-formaldehyde (PUF) organic foam for CO 2 and H 2 adsorption and was characterized by thermogravimetric analysis (TG), scanning electron microscope (SEM), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), elemental analysis (EA), a mechanical testing machine, N 2 -sorption and H 2 /CO 2 sorption. The carbon yield was approximately 50% for carbonization and the burn o® for activation ranged from 40% to 56%, which linearly increased with activation time. The macroporosity corresponded to the connected network of cells with diameters ranging from 100 m to 600 m, and the pinholes in the cell walls had diameters ranging from 1 m to 2 m. The micro/mesoporosity is located at the inner surface of the cells. Thus, higher adsorption kinetics than usual from activated carbon are expected. The developed carbon with the highest S BET (1674 m 2 /g) and highest V DR (0.86 cm 3 /g) contained 1.5% nitrogen, had a CO 2 adsorption capacity of 3.53 mmol/g at 298 K, and had an H 2 adsorption capacity of 1.9 wt.% at 77 K, both at atmospheric pressure (1 bar), which were among the best in activated carbons from physical activation.

Characterization of Carbon Materials for Hydrogen Storage and Compression

“…With an exceptionally large surface area, a microporous nature and the possibility of an economic and scalable production, ACs are excellent candidates in efficient hydrogen storage systems [58,[87][88][89][90][91][92][93][94][95][96][97][98][99][100][101][102][103]. One of the most important advantages of ACs is that they can be produced from a wide variety of low-cost and renewable raw materials, such as agricultural waste or lignocellulosic materials in general, which is an important advantage compared to other carbon materials [104].…”

Selective Activation of S or N-Containing Carbon Segments by Alkalic or Acidic Activators

“…Activated carbons (ACs) possessing high specific surface area (SSA) are widely used as adsorbents , and electrode materials for capacitive energy storage. − Usually, ACs are prepared via activation of coke or carbonaceous precursors, using KOH, H 2 O, CO 2 , etc. as activator.…”