Hypercrosslinked waste polymers as adsorbents for O2/N2 separation

Abstract

Waste polymer materials offer a lot of promise for recycling or enhancement in terms of the environment. HCPs (hypercrosslinked polymers) are an excellent contender for recycling polymers in environmental applications. We employed waste-expanded polystyrene and waste polycarbonate as precursors to make HCPs adsorbents for O2/N2 adsorption. Characterization analysis were performed to determine the adsorbents' morphology and structure. The fine adsorbent was waste-expended polystyrene which had been synthesized at 45 °C for 12 h and had a surface area of 802.84 (m2/g), an average pore diameter of 2.86 nm, and a micropore volume of roughly 184.46 (cm3/g). The Sips isotherm and Elovich kinetic models provided the best agreement (R2 = 0.9994), according to experimental data. At 5 °C and 10 bar, the fine adsorbent had the highest O2 and N2 adsorption, with 12.78 and 7.67 (mmol/g), respectively. Eventually, the kinetic evidence demonstrated that the process physically occurred. Over nine cycles, the sorbent's ability for adsorption decreased by about 5%, indicating a high degree of reusability for air separation. The method described in this study can be considered a promising approach to air separation and purification by eco-friendly hypercrosslinked polymers.