Abstract
Herein, we investigated polyacrylonitrile (PAN)-based porous activated carbon sorbents as an efficient candidate for CO2 capture. In this research, an easy and an economical method of chemical activation and carbonization was used to generate activated PAN precursor (PAN-C) adsorbents. The influence of various activators including NaOH, KOH, K2CO3, and KNO3 on the textural features of PAN-C and their CO2 adsorption performance under different temperatures was examined. Among the investigated adsorbents, PANC-NaOH and PANC-KOH exhibited high specific surface areas (2,012 and 3,072 m2 g−1), with high microporosity (0.82 and 1.15 cm3 g−1) and large amounts of carbon and nitrogen moieties. The PAN-C activated with NaOH and KOH showed maximum CO2 uptakes of 257 and 246 mg g−1 at 273 K and 163 and 155 mg g−1 at 298 K, 1 bar, respectively, which was much higher as compared to the inactivated PAN-C precursor (8.9 mg g−1 at 273 K and 1 bar). The heat of adsorption (Qst) was in the range 10.81–39.26 kJ mol−1, indicating the physisorption nature of the CO2 adsorption process. The PAN-C-based activated adsorbents demonstrated good regeneration ability over repeated adsorption cycles. The current study offers a facile two-step fabrication method to generate efficient activated porous carbon materials from inexpensive and readily available PAN for use as CO2 adsorbents in environmental applications.
Highlights
In recent centuries, the frequency and strength of climate events such as rainstorms, cold streaks, and heat waves have prominently increased worldwide
We investigated the facile fabrication of highly microporous and mesoporous carbon sorbents through carbonization of inexpensive, non-toxic, available polymer PAN followed by chemical activation with different types of activators/activating agents (KOH, NaOH, K2CO3, and KNO3)
The introduction of various activating agents and chemical activation at targeted temperature (800◦C) within PAN-based carbon (PAN-C) precursor results in disappearance of weak nitrile bonds, which confirms the successive carbonization of PAN-C precursor
Summary
The frequency and strength of climate events such as rainstorms, cold streaks, and heat waves have prominently increased worldwide. The major critical problem due to climate variation is the continuous increase in global warming (Petrescu et al, 2017), which is responsible for increasing the overall world temperature and for sea acidification (Zhong et al, 2018). The main cause of global warming is the emission of carbon dioxide (CO2) (both emissions from natural sources and from anthropogenic activities such as burning of fossil fuels) into the atmosphere (Al-Mamoori et al, 2017). Different technologies for CO2 capture include membrane separation, ionic liquid adsorption and amine scrubbing. The amine solution sorption technique is a conventional method but has several disadvantages, including corrosivity of the amine solution and greater power utilization for material regeneration than other methods (Rao and Rubin, 2002).
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
